Paul Marchant’s beef cheek idea

DURING a cost-of-living crisis many households will be searching for unusual ways to save money.

Step forward Paul Marchant, who believes he has part of the solution: a particular cut available from the butchers, beef cheeks.

Mr Marchant, who lives in Belsize Park, told me: “It’s not fatty. Cheeks are lean because of the amount of collagen in them. It’s a tough cut, but once you get it in the oven and it gets going it becomes a really soft, juicy cut of meat.”

He told me cheeks also contain large amounts of vitamins B12 and B3, iron, zinc and protein. Despite being rich in nutrients, Mr Marchant insists you can get beef cheeks for around £13 per kilo.

In his cookbook, Cheeky Feasting, he argues this is a reasonable alternative to avoiding the fattier cuts of meat, without breaking the bank. He said he spent two years researching the cookbook, which aims to reinvent dishes from around the world with the use of cheek meat.

Mr Marchant, who has lived in Belsize Park for 26 years, said he sourced all his cheeks from Barrett’s Butcher in England’s Lane.

“Anyone who would have stewing beef, there’s no reason not to have cheeks,” he adds. “You see it in high end restaurants and gastropubs, but it hasn’t made its way into people’s kitchens yet.”

Mr Marchant appears to be something of an entrepreneur – another one of his projects is a shopping trolley aimed at younger generation. His middle name is, legally, “Disco”.

“My friend Chris, five or six years ago, got ill with cancer and he wasn’t long for the world”, he said. “I offered for him to give me a name, a middle name.”

After some consideration he received an answer via text. He changed his named to Paul “Disco” Marchant. “It makes me grin and also makes me think of my friend”, he told me.