Britain's best tasting food
The Great Taste Awards focus purely on taste. No other factor is considered.
When the much-maligned yet ever-popular corned beef became the Supreme Champion at this year’s Great Taste Awards, it seemed like a joke. However, this isn’t the sort of corned beef that would have been familiar to your grandma during the rationing years. This award-winning version is made by McCartney’s of Moira, a family-owned butcher in County Down in Northern Ireland that has been established for 140 years.
It’s produced from the heels of silverside of local beef, dry-cured for 12 days, shredded by hand and pressed in a traditional meat press into sliceable blocks. In other words, student food it ain’t.
The corned beef win – coming at a time when interest in traditional, nostalgic flavours is at an all-time high – hit the headlines and even made breakfast TV news. So what are the Great Taste Awards, and why do they make so many people sit up and take notice?
Background to the awards
The Great Taste Awards (GTA) are an independent benchmark of speciality food and drink available in delis, farm shops, farmers’ markets, food halls and – increasingly – supermarkets around the UK.
They were founded in 1993 by Bob Farrand of the Guild of Fine Food. Very prestigious and highly respected in the industry – and widely recognised and trusted by consumers – they’re often referred to as ‘the Oscars of food and drink’.
The winning products are awarded one, two or three gold stars, and there are UK-wide regional winners too. The winners’ winner is deemed the Supreme Champion.
The judging process
The judging panel is made up of over 350 independent food and drink experts, including retail buyers, chefs, food writers, food and drink producers, taste scientists and TV personalities. This year they included Italian chef Antonio Carluccio, Masterchef 2010 winner Dhruv Baker, revered food personality Glynn Christian, and cheese producer and erstwhile musician Alex James. 
There were more than 7,000 entries this year, out of which 2,400 were winning products and only 114 were awarded the much-coveted 3 gold stars. All items were intensively blind tasted around the UK over a period of two months.
The GTA judging process is stringent but fun. I’ve judged many times in previous years, and there’s always a great deal of good-natured bantering, as panel members taste and often re-taste each product, sometimes arguing or discussing at length. What is amazing is that, despite coming from different backgrounds, the judges are almost always in instant agreement about the stand-out products with the ‘wow!’ factor.
Unlike many other food and drink awards where you might have to consider marketability, package design and other criteria, the emphasis here is purely on ‘great taste’. Judges are encouraged to ask of each product: “Does it taste delicious? Would I rush out and buy it? Would I recommend it to my family and friends?”
So how does winning impact on a producer’s life and business?
Last year’s Supreme Champion, Catherine Robinson of Hurstwood Farm’s virgin cold-pressed cobnut oil, explains, “The phone started to ring and we were inundated with enquiries about the product… anyone who was interested in food suddenly became aware of [its] existence, and we were thrust into the forefront of public awareness.”
“Following on from [this]… the ball started to roll. As chefs used the oil, so enquiries from individuals increased and… the word spread further… the public perception of our business changed overnight, from a very small operation, dealing only with immediate local customers, to a nationally acclaimed and recognised business.”
For me, the GTA logo is shorthand for reliability. When I’m trying to decide which food or drink product to buy, I find myself automatically reaching for one with the GTA logo. After all, it’s been on a long journey to get there.
The major trophy winners of 2011:
Supreme Champion and Northern Ireland
Corned Beef, McCartney’s of Moira
Wales
Dark Side of the Moose Beer, Purple Moose Brewery
South East
Royal Merina Chocolate, Demarquette Fine Chocolates
South West
Dry-cured Organic Unsmoked Bacon, Duchy
Midlands & East Anglia
Smoked Gammon, Hill Top Smokehouse
Scotland
Traditionally Cured and Oak-smoked Herring, J Lawrie & Sons
Ireland
Yeats Country Organic Full-Fat Soft Cheese, Green Pastures (Donegal)
North
Sicilian Pistacchio Ice Cream, Spurreli
Speciality Importer
Oolong Tea, Wan Ling Tea House
Best Ambient
Sweet Raspberry Vinegar, Stratta
Best First Time Entrant
Beef Fat, Alternative Meats Ltd
Speciality Producer
Farmhouse Cheddar, Quickes
Lifetime Achievement
Tim Rowcliffe, speciality cheese wholesaler
Deli of the Year
Arch House Deli, Bristol
Great Taste Champion
Sheila Dillon, BBC Radio Four
What are your views on the Great Taste Awards, and the idea of food and drink awards generally? Do you buy GTA award-winning products? Do you find the GTA logo a useful guide?
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