The best of British grub?
Updated on 04 May 2009
This was not just any food, this was, well, potentially gold award-winning food at the Great Taste Awards, and I was among the lucky few selected as a judge, writes Felicity Spector.
There were 5,000 entries, all vying for the most coveted accolade in the food world - a Great Taste Award.
And I was among the lucky few selected to help judge more than 5,000 entries - well, not quite all 5,000, although after seven hours of blind-tasting everything from specialist sausages to sticky toffee pudding, it almost felt like it.
Bob Farrand, the genial head of the Guild of Fine Food, in charge of the tightly organised blind-tasting process, briefed everyone on the task ahead.
On each table, a selection of un-named products, all entered by small firms and specialist producers, with no more than five or six to taste in each category, as you can clearly have too much of a good thing.
The judges, an assortment of food experts from cookery writers to delicatessen owners, were divided into teams, to determine whether anything was worthy of a gold or should be chucked out of the competition.
At stake, not just the kudos and a posh gold and black logo to stick on winning foods, but the chance of massively increased sales.
Last year's award winners took an extra £2.6m and the man behind the overall supreme champion, a blackcurrant and kirsch sorbet, has seen his business soar.
But back in a slightly chilly room in London's Olympia, I joined a specialist cheese buyer, a head honcho from Fortnums, and a food magazine writer to tackle the spread laid out on our table: some fantastic bread, some great sausages and some not so great, a daunting number of pork pies, various vegetable crisps, a variety of cheeses, and, I noticed happily, some chocolate cakes.
It was fairly easy to agree which we liked, although the cheese guy displayed a level of expertise I hadn't even known existed: "Well, of course compared to other sheep's milk, Lancashire I've had, you can tell this one's been wrapped in wax, not cloth." Was this a good thing? Who knew?
So this, then, was life as a supreme judge, the brief, to decide the truly faultless foods, from the just plain excellent.Felicity Spector
Anything that seemed particularly tasty had a 'gold' label slapped on it and was paraded off to the supreme judging table.
I wandered over; they were getting totally overwhelmed. A backlog of pies was stacked up at the back; loaves of bread were in danger of overflowing; small bowls of jam and toffee sauce jostled for space among the chutneys. More pies arrived. "Oh please god, not more pies."
It was clear they needed help and a group of us were summoned to step into the breach.
So this, then, was life as a supreme judge, the brief, to decide the truly faultless foods, from the just plain excellent, one star, to the potential three star winners, the truly memorable - the kind of thing you'd want to tell everyone to rush out and try. Was this a dream job, or what?
Of course, not everything made the grade. The gluten free fruit cake that crumbled into dust and left a bizarrely sandy taste in the back of your throat. The chocolate-lemon curd: why? Happily, the tuna-apricot sausage of last year didn't make a reappearance.
But we tucked in regardless, as the plates just kept on coming.
By late afternoon, some of the others were flagging, but not me, certainly not as the puddings arrived: a fantastic sticky ginger toffee pudding, a red fruit crumble, some kind of peanut butter fudge.
This was my area of expertise, and I was making the most of it. As others fell on a piece of roast pork with particularly crunchy crackling, we lauded them all with stars, in a happy glow of well-fed bliss.
Next weekend - the judging continues: this time, with a twist - it'll all take place amid the buzz of the Real Food Festival - with some sessions going live, so the audience can join in what's going on.
As for me, I'll be there too, helping the search for that perfect pudding, the classic cake, the brilliant brownie. And maybe, even another stint on that supreme judging table.
