Michael Michaud and his wife, Joy, run Peppers by Post, a mail order business specialising in the production of chillies. Eleven years old this year, Peppers by Post has been slowly but surely gaining a reputation for innovation and quality and supplies both retail and wholesale customers throughout Britain with ‘home grown fresh chillies’.

Always on the look out for the perfect pepper, Michael has been researching the sweet peppers and chillies grown in Britian’s immigrant communities. He obsessively tries forty or more varieties each year, writing and giving talks on their diversity and culinary utility to groups as diverse as the Guild of Food Writers, Slow Food Movement and Friends of the Eden Project.