Jeremy Clarkson has finally revoked his “no ketchup” ban in his Oxfordshire pub after sharing his plans to sell the beloved condiment. The 65-year-old motoring journalist opened his watering hold The Farmer’s Dog back in August 2024, insisting that it would “serve exclusively British food”. This mean that the popular sauce, which is made from ingredients grown outside the UK, would be banned from the menu.
In the past 12 months, the former Top Gear host has been flooded with thousands of requests from customers to change his mind about the decision. Now, Clarkson has approved the sauce’s addition to the menu after a Chatham-based producer made it using solely British ingredients.
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Condimaniac ketchup is made of tomato passata from the Isle of Wight, apple cider vinegar from Hants, Esse, salt, and sugar and onions sourced from all over Britain.
The company’s boss Kier Kemper said in an Instagram video chronicling the sauce’s creation: “Making a 100 per cent British ketchup after Jeremy Clarkson alerted us to the fact there wasn’t one was very hard. It turned out to be really hard”, he added, noting the Diddly Squat team requested the sauce “as soon as possible”.
Kemp said the company is making two sauces at the same time – one containing carrots and onion “used to thicken” the sauce, as there is no purely British tomato puree. Condimaniac, which started with 1,700 bottles, will be offered at the Clarkson’s butcher and bottle shop.
The sauce will also be sold at Clarkson’s Diddly Squat Farm Shop, based in Chipping Norton, from Friday (August 15). The move is a huge U-turn for Clarkson, considering the Grand Tour star became so fed up with requests for red sauce that a sign was put up telling customers to stop asking for it.
Speaking about the products on offer when the pub first opened its doors, Clarkson said: “The menu changes – it's whatever we’ve got. There’s no Coca-Cola, no coffee. Other pubs do coffee. We do British food. Everything that you can consume in here – every singly thing – even the black pepper and the sugar, is grown by British farmers.”
Diddly Squat, a 1,000-acre holding, is at the centre of Clarkson’s Farm which follows the TV presenter’s journey into the world of farming and the challenges that come along with it.
The broadcaster paid less than £1million for the pub based in Asthall, which was formerly known as The Windmill. It’s opening, however, was marred by complaints surrounding the absence of prices on the menu, leaving many fans suspicious that the dishes would be more expensive than other pubs in the area.
When one person joked on X – formerly known as Twitter – that they would need to remortgage their home to afford a round of drinks at Clarkson’s pub, the presenter bluntly replied: “It’s £5.50 a pint.”