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Essential Cuisine

The Way We Like To Do Business

With over 250 years of combined experience in working kitchens, there’s no other supplier better placed to understand the unique challenges of kitchen life than Essential Cuisine.

We are proud to support chefs by consistently developing a high quality range of time saving, energy efficient solutions that help chefs focus on creativity while conserving valuable resources.

Our products meet the highest standards of safety, sustainability, and taste; proudly crafted in our BRCGS accredited facility in the heart of Cheshire. Our entire range is 100% gluten free, with many products suitable for vegan and vegetarian diets, complaint with 2024 salt targets* and some free from declarable allergens^.


^ Does not contain declarable allergens under the EU regulation 1169/2011 (Annex 11)

*Meets 2024 salt targets set by Public Health England

Essential Cuisine In

1995

  • Founded by Nigel Crane, former Sous Chef at the Dorchester. 
  • Our first products were the Chicken and Fish Stock Mix which hit the market this year.

Essential Cuisine In

2003

  • The company moved into our first office, Innovation House, and expanded the product portfolio launching Premier Veal Jus and Glaces.

Essential Cuisine In

2006

  • After lots of hard work and dedication, we achieved £1 million in profit.

Essential Cuisine In

2007

  • We built a new warehouse in Winsford for the growing business. Enabling us to expand production and stock levels.

Essential Cuisine In

2008

  • Our ready-to-use Signature Range was launched and the team expanded to 10 employees.

Essential Cuisine In

2011

  • Our new offices opened in the heart of Cheshire allowing the team to expand even further to 20 employees.

Essential Cuisine In

2013

  • We expanded our Cheshire facility to house a brand new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility. Allowing us to increase production capacity.

Essential Cuisine In

2015

  • We introduced our gluten free Béchamel Sauce Mix to our range.

Essential Cuisine In

2016

  • Our team expanded even further to 75 employees and we were proud to achieve £10 million in profit.

Essential Cuisine In

2017

  • The No1 gravy range was re-launched with a new gluten free recipe.
  • Our Cheshire site expanded even further with a new chef innovation kitchen, NPD lab and technical offices.

Essential Cuisine In

2018

  • The company was acquired by Solina Group in May. Solina is a leading global food solutions company that develops and manufactures customised ingredient systems, seasonings, and functional solutions for the food industry.

Essential Cuisine In

2019

  • In line with our acquisition by Solina and our heroic brand status, we launched a new brand look and feel.
  • Informed by industry trends, we launched our Street Food Chef Seasonings, bringing vibrant global flavours to chefs across the country.

Essential Cuisine In

2020

  • As veganism became more of a prevalent diet choice, we launched our innovative Vegan Lamb, Beef, Chicken and Vegetable Stock Mixes into the market.
  • Our Vegan Stock Mix Range are also accredited by the Halal Food Authority.

Essential Cuisine In

2021

  • Relaunched our Signature range with a new premium look and feel.

Essential Cuisine In

2023

  • Essential Cuisine became proud headline sponsors of the Craft Guild of Chefs National Chef of The Year Competition.

Essential Cuisine In

2024

  • To further expand our global flavour category, we launched our Indian Inspired Seasonings and Curry Onion Sauce – a launch made possible through our collaboration with Solina and our sister company, Solions.
  • The Essential Cuisine brand was updated to incorporate the Solina group brand mark.

Essential Cuisine In

2025

  • We were proud to announce that our Winsford factory achieved a BRCGS AA* standard from an unannounced audit.
  • Adding to our Street Food Chef range, we launched our Street Food Chef Sauces and new Fragrant Thai Style Seasoning.
  • We launched an Asian Korean Style Base into our Asian Range.

Products Tailored To Your Needs

Whether working in a Michelin star restaurant or a school kitchen,
we have a product to suit your needs!

No1 Savoury Gravy is our go to product when it comes to sauces, it has great flavour and colour and finishes our sauces off perfectly. It’s also suitable for vegans and is completely gluten free which really helps when writing recipes for the pubs.
Andrew Scott, Head Of Food at Wadworths
We use the Vegan stock range in most of our stocks and sauces in our Halal and non-Halal kitchens. For our Halal customer’s the range adds deep authentic meat flavours to their dishes without meat based products being used. We use the range in the traditional way, but we also use it in marination’s and rubs for different meat dishes. Using it on daily basis you would find it hard to distinguish the vegan range from the regular Stock mix range.
Jim Chatwin, UK Executive Chef at Newrest
We’ve been using Essential Cuisine now for 8 years, and when they came on the market, I thought they filled a niche very well. Their basic stocks and jus are extremely “essential”. The No1 gravies are absolutely perfect if you run a good gastro pub as, like the rest of Essential Cuisine’s products, they are near perfect. They have a rich depth of flavour and a very good viscosity and shine, as close to kitchen-made as you can get.
Matt Davies, BCF Chairman
Having recently tried your Asian range of stocks they are very authentic stocks close to the real thing, great for Ramens and Noodle pots. I visited Japan last year and especially enjoyed the flavours which your range has replicated, but the Asian range has so many uses rather than just Ramen broths as marinades and glazes. These fit perfectly for the current BBQ trend in the foodie scene.
Jim Wealands, Group Food Development Director, CH&Co Group
I can really tell the difference in quality from stocks I have worked with in the past.
The focus Essential Cuisine has put on removing allergens from its stocks has been a huge help - this gives us real peace of mind in the kitchen.
Mark Coombs, Felsted School, Essex
We have such good support from Essential Cuisine.
We’ve been using Essential Cuisine since 2012. If we are ever worried about any of their products, we just make a phone call and they talk us through exactly what is in the product.
Sue Brady, Sue Brady Catering - School Caterer Provider, Wiltshire
Better cost control alongside the obvious health benefits.
We switched to Essential Cuisine because their products had a much lower salt content than the previous brand we were using. The consistency of their stock is brilliant, because it’s a powder you know you’re getting better cost control.
Gareth Waters, Head of Restaurant & Catering St Andrew’s Healthcare
Ideal when catering for a range of special diets.
The Essential Cuisine range is simply exceptional. The products have been extremely well received by myself and the Cornwall Care team; they have a clean, clear flavour and are ideal when catering for a range of special diets.
Leri Allen, Group Catering Manager Cornwall Care


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