Champion food, winning tastes
Updated on 08 September 2009
Felicity Spector joins the great and the good from the food world at Fortnum & Mason to attend the 2009 Great Taste Awards.
From almost 5,000 entries to just 11: after several months, weeks of judging and the bestowing of 83 prestigious three-star gold awards, at last, the supreme champion can be revealed.
Last night's Great Taste Awards were the food industry's equivalent of the Oscars, where a panel of celebrity chefs and food experts had been specially selected to hand out the top prizes to small producers from across the country.
In the grand setting of London's gourmet emporium Fortnum & Mason, this year's final judging came with a twist: the winners would be chosen live, during the evening.
At a large table, empty plates at the ready, sat the judges, including celebrity chefs Mark Hix and Anthony Worrall Thomson, Radio 2's Chris Evans, and Masterchef winner-turned-restaurateur Thomasina Miers.
It was their task to rate and compare the shortlisted goodies, from smoked wild salmon and mini pork pies to some almost indecently squidgy chocolate brownies.
Inside the shop, special chefs tables had been set up across three floors, showcasing some of those gold award winners. As the ever ebullient Bob Farand, the man behind the awards, put it: the foods which, when you taste them, make you want to smile.
In among the fine china, a trio of attractive boys from the Fresh Pasta Company fretted over their ravioli: “It's sticking together!” In the end, some olive oil was produced - disaster averted.
Near the Christmas decorations, a table of puddings: I made a beeline for those brownies, which I think I'd been lucky enough to sample when judging the Great Taste Awards in the earlier rounds.
And in Fortnum's sumptuous basement, a cheery bloke slapped slices of award-winning bacon and white pudding in miniature baps for an appreciative queue of breakfast lovers, while platters of unusual cheeses and ox cheek pies jostled for space on the delicatessen counter.
Back at the judging table, some regional and specialist awards were handed out. After their ravioli trauma, the pasta boys emerged jubilant, scooping the prize for speciality importer of the year.
Finally, after some argy bargy about the contenders, the poshest nosh of them all was finally decided. And the winner was... those brownies, or gluten-free Muddees chocolate brownies, to give them their full name, made by a Welsh company called More? The Artisan bakery. which had already been festooned with honours in previous years but never the top prize of all.
Cue general celebrations all round, and shouts of “Oh! Yes!” from the larger than life Irish chef Richard Corrigan, who was clearly a big fan.
A man from Fudges Bakery (winner of best speciality product), who turned out to be Mr Fudge himself, through a slightly wine-fuelled haze, happily invited me to tour his bakery. The pasta guys disappeared off for some late night celebrations. The judging panel were swept away for dinner. The last of the brownies were, alas, all gone.
But at least some small businesses came away flushed with success – and hoping for lots more publicity and sales. For winning a Great Taste Award isn't just an accolade for baking tasty cakes. Over the last five years, gold award winners have generated more than £2.6m in extra sales.
And that's no small achievement in these recessionary times.
