So when the man told me he was actually called Mr Fudge I was a bit thrown, but rallied thinking he might be like Willy Wonka and have a fudge factory staffed by people of challenged verticality.
Sadly no, he makes biscuits. Rather good biscuits as it turned out and he had come all the way from Dorset to the top floor of Fortnum & Masons to show us a selection and explain their manufacture.
Percy Fudge started the biscuit ball rolling by having a bakery back in 1926 supplying loads of loaves to the surrounding farms for the ever-hungry labourers.
Steve Fudge, or Not Willy Wonka as I now balefully regarded him, is Percy’s grandson and the man in charge, having been sucked back into the life some years ago. As he says biscuits are in his blood, like sugar.
The Fudges believe a biscuit should taste wonderful and so butter is what they choose to use, just as they use real lemon zest in their lemon biscuits. In fact all the biscuits in their large arsenal are made from fine ingredients carefully sourced. The biscuits themselves are hand crafted, shaped and baked using methods not much different from those used fifty years ago.
Having tried a lot of them in a short space of time, I can say that despite feeling a bit ill (but then no one is supposed to eat quite that many, quite that quickly) they were quite clearly superior biscuits and very well packaged too,
With Christmas approaching the Fudges have also come up with a great selection of my favourites; biscuits for cheese – Round Rosemary, Oat Crackers, Harvester Seeded Flatbreads and Malted Wheat biscuits being just some , along with glamorous cheese straws too.
Check the Fudge website where you’ll see the whole range of biscuits, both sweet and savoury, as well as Mini Mince Pies, Twelfth Night Cake and Fudge’s Chocolate Florentines. Tasty treats for the upper biscuit eating classes and definitely not for dunking.