The Great Taste Awards Top 50 Foods in Britain Announced
Nick Baines takes a look at The Great Taste Awards and some of their coveted top 50 products.
The Great Taste Awards provide a benchmark for quality and reliability in fine food throughout the UK. Now in its nineteenth year, the awards first came into being in 1994. “We completed all the judging in about two hours using twelve judges, each of whom worked on their own, tasting between fifteen and twenty entries,” explains Bob Farrand, Chairman of The Guild of Fine Food. This year however, The Great Taste Awards received 8807 entries that had to be judged over 45 days by 350 food and drink experts.” It is clear that not only The Great Taste Awards, but British food, has come a long way over the past nineteen years.
What the previous winner has to say
Last years Supreme Champion, was a corned beef from Irish butcher McCartney’s of Moira. “We’ve had papers and magazines contact us from all over the world this past year,” says George McCartney, who is now in the process of doubling the size of his operation. “We’ve won all kinds of awards, our first was Best British Butcher in 1980, but winning the Great Taste Awards last year really blew our socks off. The response has been phenomenal.”
Today, the top fifty products of Great Britain have been revealed showcasing just how great a food nation we really are. Here is just a few of the countries top 50.
Jaipur IPA, Thornbridge Brewery
Situated on the outskirts of Bakewell, the Derbyshire town of pie and pudding fame, Thornbridge Brewery is one of the most innovative in the country. Their Jaipur is an unpasturised and unfiltered Indian Pale Ale, a smooth, hoppy beer with a subtle honey sweetness. A beer to savour and well worth a trip to the brewery up in the Peak District, just don’t go home without a Bakewell pudding.
English Wagyu, Lidgates
One of the more pricey foods in the Great Taste Awards Top 50, the wagyu steaks from Lidgates of Holland Park certainly live up to the expectation. The illustrious wagyu beef has been fetishised by food writers for years, it has a vivid marbling of pale white fat and a velvety, buttery consistency. Absolutely singing with deep beefy flavour this English wagyu comes from Earl Stonham Farm, the UK’s only supplier of purebred wagyu. It comes with a hefty price tag, but, oh my, it’s worth it.
Imperial China chocolate ganache, Demarquette
These ganache chocolates from Demarquette are truly astounding. They’re made from single origin Vietnamese cacao and infused with Jasmine White Monkey tea. The subtle, perfectly balanced blend of flavours makes for a gentle, almost mesmerising chocolate.
Gizzards Confit, 1 Chef 4 U
The ‘nasty bits’ of animals often are where the most flavor is hidden, gizzards being a prime example. Gizzards are a secondary stomach of poultry used to grind down food before it heads off to the stomach proper. 1 Chef 4 U produce these beautiful duck gizzards confit, the tough little muscle retaining just a little of it’s bounce, but coming apart with the perfect balance of reluctance and surrender. The gizzards come from free-range mallards, which are fed 100% naturally, so no animal flour or GM foods. Use these in a salad with walnuts and a light vinaigrette.
Links
My golden rules for perfect steaks
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