User:Craigsams

Craig Sams

Craig Sams (born 1944) is a UK-based baker, grocer, chocolatier, columnist and author.

Contents

   * 1 Life and works
   * 2 Books
   * 3 References
   * 4 External links

Life and works

Craig opened SEED, a macrobiotic restaurant in Paddington with his brother Greg Sams in 1968.

SEED Restaurant soon became popular with the 1960s London psychedelic scene, and was frequented by John Lennon among others

The Sams brothers opened a specialised macrobiotic foodshop, Ceres Grain, the following year. During the 1970s, with Greg and their father Ken, edited and published a magazine called 'Seed, the Journal of Organic Living' over a seven year period.

In 1970 Craig and Greg set up Harmony Foods, which eventually became known as Whole Earth Foods.

In 1972 his guidebook to the macrobiotic diet, About Macrobiotics, was published by Thorson’s and was translated into 7 languages and distributed worldwide.

In 1977 he created a range of jams under the Whole Earth brand which were the first ‘no sugar added’ food products, using apple juice in place of sugar as a sweetener.

In 1991, with his partner Josephine Fairley, he founded Green & Black’s chocolate, the first organic chocolate, the first high (70%) cocoa solids chocolate and the first British food product to earn the Fairtrade Mark (1994).

The Macrobiotic Brown Rice Cookbook by Craig Sams was published by Healing Arts Press in 1994. In 2002 the Whole Earth Foods business was sold to Wessanen, a Dutch multinational.

In 2005 Green & Black’s was sold to Cadbury. Craig is President and a Board Director of what is now a wholly-owned division of the multinational confectionery company.

He has a monthly column in the Organic Products section of Natural Products News.

From 1990 until 2001 he was Hon. Treasurer of the Soil Association, the British organic food and farming charity. From 2001 to 2007 he was Chairman. He is deputy Chair of the Soil Association and is Chairman of Soil Association Certification Ltd, the charity’s subsidiary that carries out inspection and certification to the Soil Association’s standards for organic food production.

In 2008 Sweet Dreams, The Story of Green & Black’s Chocolate, co-authored by Craig Sams and Josephine Fairley, was published by Random House.

[edit] Books

   * About Macrobiotics
   * The Macrobiotic Brown Rice Cookbook
   * The Little Food Book – an explosive account of the food we eat today
   *  Sweet Dreams – The Story of Green & Black’s

[edit] References

  1. http://www.gourmet.com/magazine/2000s/2008/08/craigsams
  2. http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2006/may/28/foodanddrink.features1