Initiatives
Mutton Renaissance
The Mutton Renaissance campaign aims to repopularise mutton, which is meat from a two year old sheep (ewe).
Once widely eaten across the United Kingdom, mutton fell out of favour in past decades with the result that sheep farmers found themselves struggling to get a decent price for their ewes.
The Prince founded the Mutton Renaissance, and later the Mutton Renaissance Club, for restaurateurs, to boost the incomes of family farms which he believes are vital to the well being and long term maintenance of the British countryside.
As part of the renaissance, supported by the Academy of Culinary Arts and the National Sheep Association, top UK restaurants have been encouraged to include mutton on their menus and to join the Mutton Renaissance Club launched by The Prince in February 2004.
As a direct result, support for British mutton is growing. Around 200 family farms, restaurants, butchers and abattoirs across Britain are now rearing, selling and serving mutton.
This year, mutton will appear on the menus of a number of top restaurants, including Le Gavroche, The Ritz, Ransome’s Dock and Kensington Place in London as well as many dining pubs and restaurants across the UK.
In December 2005, the Independent on Sunday named mutton as "ingredient of the year" and the meat was championed by Gordon Ramsay on his latest television series.
The Prince’s Duchy Home Farm supplies mutton to The Ritz Hotel in London.