Staffordshire dish lobby celebrated in Stoke-on-Trent

Jake Sutton said the dish was a great way of using up leftovers

Traders are starting a week-long celebration of a Staffordshire delicacy to encourage more people to try it.

Lobby is a meat and vegetable stew made with leftovers, initially created by potters in the area who were unable to afford fresh food every day.

National Lobby Week is an initiative by Longton Exchange shopping centre to help support local businesses.

The centre said it had chosen January as people's budgets were often at their tightest.

Lobby is a hearty meat and vegetable stew made with leftovers

"If I was speaking to a Martian about a lobby, I'd say it was the best of what you've got left in the cupboard veg-wise, plus pieces of meat, slow cooked for six to eight hours," said Jake Sutton, who runs cafe No.22 in Hanley Market.

"What you've got left, you've worked hard for it, so you don't want to chuck it in the bin.

"You need to repurpose it, and how better than to do it than make a big stew at everyone can dip in to."

• Listen: Celebrating the Staffordshire staple of Lobby

He said he had been brought up on the hearty dish and it was "massively popular" in his cafe in winter.

Chris Ward, manager of the Longton Exchange, said the timing for the week-long celebration was partly inspired by the cost of living crisis.

"This week is the week before pay day for a lot of people, the tightest week of the year really after Christmas, and we thought it was a cheap meal that was easy to make."

The shopping centre will be offering free helpings of lobby between 13:00-14:00 GMT daily, between 22-27 January.

It is hoped the event will take off in a similar way to Oatcake Day which takes place annually on 8 August.