This summer saw one-woman food-and-drink brand Camikazi hit the market in north London.
Camilla Pryce, of Belsize Park, started out in food under the instruction of her mother, aged just 10. Her twenties saw her run supper clubs in Dalston. Aged 34, she started Camikazi, the guise under which she makes and sells homemade sauces, butters, and cocktails.
Camikazi’s Everything Sauce, so named because “it goes with everything”, is the brand’s flagship product.
A mix of fresh herbs, chilli, honey and a few other secret ingredients, Everything is “zesty and sweet.. an accompaniment for any main course”.
“I had some with a Thai dish last week,” said Camilla, who sources some ingredients from Queen’s Crescent Market. For my sauce, I get my herbs on the market there, they know my shopping list.”
Everything Sauce has already featured on the “Around the Cluck” takeaway menu at James Cochrane’s 12:51 restaurant in Upper Street, and is now sold at Newington Green’s Yield deli and Taylor’s at Maltby Street Market at Tower Bridge.
“I started mid-June, trying to get it out there, starting to do the bottles and the designing, and then I went into James’s restaurant mid-July,” she said. “My first day going out to all the different shops in East London was the beginning of August.
“It was the hottest day of the year, and there was me, in a mask, sweating, pitching my products. I gave everyone a miniature version of the bottle.”
Camilla also made her own sourdough bread for prospective vendors.
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By day, Camilla is Topshop’s footwear designer. Lockdown saw her furloughed with the possibility of redundancy. Fortunately, she remains employed but the company has since gone into administration.
“There’s a lot that hasn’t been said to us,” Camilla said of Topshop and its future.
But she said: “I’ll continue to push...get my products into as many places as possible. I’ll continue with Primrose Hill market, where I sell every other Saturday.”
Camikazi is next at Primrose Hill Food Market on Saturday December 5 and 19.
Follow Camikazi on Instagram at @_camikazi.
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