Nine products from 7 local producers who have reached the finals of the delicious. Produce Awards 2017 have been shown to a team of the food world’s great and good, and will have the chance to sell their products nationwide in the newly created delicious. online shop for award winners.
The judges include:
Matthew Fort – Food writer, critic and author. Matthew has presented BBC’s Great British Menu. Andi Oliver – Food presenter, chef and restaurateur. Andi joined the judging panel on BBC’s Great British Menu this year. John Farrand – Managing director of The Guild of Fine Food. Lucas Hollweg – Award-winning food writer, cook and author. Clerkenwell Boy – Social media star and blogger, winner of the 2016 Observer Food Monthly Award for the best Instagram feed. Aggie MacKenzie – delicious. magazine's very own kitchen gadget tester is a journalist and TV and radio broadcaster, best known for co-presenting Channel 4’s How Clean is Your House.Sue Quinn – An award-winning food writer, journalist and author of several cookbooks. Ian Wild – Operations Manager at Westminster Kingsway College for 15 years, where he is in charge of purchasing for the college’s famous Hospitality School. Karen Barnes – Editor of delicious. magazine. She put together her first (handwritten) magazine (complete with recipes and crossword) at the age of six and has been obsessively reading about food and writing recipes ever since. She has two goals: to get more people into the kitchen so they can discover the rewards of cooking, and to champion the producers who work so hard to create food Britain can be proud of.
The newly created online shop www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/shop gives small producers the unique opportunity to sell their products to customers across the country via the extensive delicious. magazine community.
Editor Karen Barnes is delighted to be able to showcase and sell these unique products to their foodie fans. She says: “When we launched our Produce Awards in 2016 we had a dream of helping our star small producers with an online store for selling their brilliant products. Every shortlisted producer has a chance to be involved.”
For the second year,delicious. magazine is running its Produce Awards. The Awards put Britain’s top producers centre-stage, with the winning products and producers announced in the glossy food magazine’s October 2017 issue, then featured throughout the year.
East & West Midlands finalists are:
Leicestershire Handmade Cheese Co, Nuneaton, Warwickshire: Sparkenhoe Red Leicester Cheese
Souper Foods, Droitwich, Worcestershire: Cream of Worcestershire Asparagus Soup
British Cassis, Lyonshall, Herefordshire: British Cassis
New Close Farm Shop, Bakewell, Derbyshire: Traditional Pork Sausages and Traditional Pork Pie and Oak-Smoked Dry-Cured Streaky Bacon
Redhill Farm Free Range Pork, Gainsborough, Lincolnshire: Redhill Farm Free Range Lincolnshire Sausage
L J Fairburn & Son Ltd, Alford, Lincolnshire: British Blue Eggs from Fairburn’s
Launde Farm Foods, Launde, Leicestershire: Launde Lamb
The regional judges were John Wigley,farmer and founder of The Big Cow Black online farm; cookery demonstrator, author and broadcaster Rachel Green; and Alison Swan Parente, who founded the Welbeck Bakehouse and School of Artisan Food.
Editor Karen Barnes says: “delicious. magazine has a huge, loyal following of food-loving fans and these awards build on our heritage as a publication dedicated to great-tasting food. We want to celebrate producers and artisans who are committed to quality and heritage. We aim to give a voice to the quiet heroes of the food world – the protectors of provenance and shepherds of sustainability.”