Jubilee Foods, a brand extension of Café Jubilee, opens its first store in L-Ibraġ on Friday, one of three outlets the company plans to inaugurate in the next nine months.
Just a stone's throw away from the parish church parvis, the store, complete with vintage look, will stock Jubilee Foods' entire range of traditional ready-to-cook pies and savouries, wine, preserves, oils, coffee, and desserts.
"People are going back to their roots," Jubilee Foods chief executive Alex Scicluna told The Sunday Times, when asked about the popularity of Maltese foods. "Genuine products are increasingly sought after, but most people do not have the time or even the know-how to prepare traditional dishes.
"It all ties in with the ethos and core principles of Jubilee Foods: the customer is at the centre of our brand. We believe profits are a by-product of what we do. The shopping experience at Jubilee Foods has been designed on the same principles as the Café Jubilee patron experience."
Products in the Jubilee Foods range, Mr Scicluna pointed out, lived up to the brand's 'personality' - they had to be Mediterranean or traditional, wholesome, hand-made, and made from fresh produce. In some ways, they also had to be nostalgic. Most of all, they had to be high quality.
He recalled that when Café Jubilee opened its second bistro in 2000 in Valletta, some of the procedures that were employed at the Victoria Café Jubilee were replicated. Mr Scicluna and his brothers Mario and Anthony - Jubilee remains a family business notwithstanding the company's aim to double its market presence in 12 months - realised that consistency depended on the teams at the respective location.
By the time the third Café Jubilee opened on The Strand in 2005, a centralised food preparation facility was established in Victoria to ensure standards were maintained and the operation ran more efficiently.
"The Café Jubilee handmade ravioli were a firm favourite and patrons often asked to take them home, so we decided to find a way to accommodate them," Mr Scicluna explained. "The ravioli are handmade with traditional Gozo cheese and professionally packaged on a commercial scale. We distributed 'Nanna's ravioli' to supermarkets and they were an instant success. Customers then began to request other Café Jubilee foods in take-home versions."
The range was extended to include traditional cheesecakes and other saviouries, but the Sciclunas were becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the lack of control they had over the products after they left the preparation facility. The products were handed over to a distributor who would make them available at retailers, but in stores, the presentation and preservation sometimes left much to be desired.
Concerned that the brand's reputation would suffer unnecessarily, Mr Scicluna said the company decided to take over the entire process - "the most expensive way to do it" - and Jubilee Foods was born. Mr Scicluna explained that besides giving the company overall control - practically from farm to fork as the company carries out its own produce sourcing - the time lag from preparation to consumer is just days rather than months as with most other foodstuffs.
Jubilee Foods will follow the Maltese culinary calendar and the stores will stock traditional festive favourites and foods made with seasonal produce. The highlight of the current season is the Lampuki pie.
General manager Ruth Camilleri, who joins the brand after extensive experience in the hospitality industry in Malta and overseas, explained that the Jubilee Foods range had been the subject of extensive research into the wants and needs of Maltese consumers, and a comprehensive initial range of around 40 items had been drawn up.
They include jams, chutneys, syrups, and Comino honey (superior honey which could easily qualify for organic status), traditional tomato paste, genuine sun-dried tomatoes, peppered cheeselets, and hand-picked capers - the plain cheeselet will follow in November.
There is a small range of Jubilee wines, Italian olive oils and aromatic coffee sourced from South America. Ready-to-cook items included the northern favourites rice and pumpkin pie, steak and dark ale, and cheeselet and broad bean pies. The list of desserts incorporates date sweets, walnut and marmalade tarts, and pumpkin cake. All have been certified, and packaging carries extensive dietary information.
Mr Scicluna said the next Jubilee Foods would open in Victoria in mid-October. The brothers travel to Hungary to open their first Café Jubilee abroad on Budapest's fashionable Fifth District in mid-December. They will return to take stock and examine the market before opening a third Jubilee Foods store before the summer.
Mr Scicluna said there were other projects in the pipeline but would only hint that research and testing on some new ideas were underway.