Fine Food Food Northwest Awards 2010

Yesterday I had the privilege of being a judge in the Fine Food Food Northwest Awards 2010.  

We're exceptionally lucky in the North West of England to have such a diverse range of fantastic fine food.  Where else in the world can you get food like lamb from the Cumbrian fells (or salt marshes), great seafood like potted shrimps from Morecambe Bay or Southport, Lancashire tomatoes and salads, apples and strawberries from Cheshire, and tasty Lancashire and Cheshire cheese (and other great dairy produce) all in relatively close proximity?

I must congratulate Food North West on a very well run event.  There were 60 judges who had to assess 350 products in 48 subcategories and we had to pick 10 category winners and finalists for the Fine Food Producer of the Year and Best New Fine Food Product.

The master judge was Nigel Howarth (of Northcote Manor) who's done much to promote the region's food.  The event was held at Ewood Park (the home of Blackburn Rovers):

where I did worry that the pitch was not as green as some of the cakes!

We were divided up into different groups.  On just our table there were restauranters, food writers, a supermarket buyer (from Booths - one of my favourite supermarkets) a deli owner (who also runs a cookery school) and a farmer and the Chief Executive of the Westmorland Agricultural Society. 

Every year they also have a competition where five food lovers from across the Northwest are picked.  This year one of the winners was a a forensic scientist, - I was hoping that the food wouldn't be "dead good" in that sense of the word!

It was a lot harder judging than I'd first thought.  How do you compare three cheeses as different as these?

We felt that some areas weren't as well supported as they might have been.  We also had interesting debates, I love oats but should they be this prominent in a black pudding?

There were also white puddings (which I'd not really had much experience of) and what I presume was a black and white pudding.

To try and make it impartial we were not told who the producer was (or what the product was other than the category) and we were not shown any of the packaging.  


The food was prepared according to any instructions supplied, although we did wonder whether this pudding should have looked like this!

I was particularly impressed with the vegetables and salads we tried.  We had some very nice asparagus:

and watercress

and different lettuce

Some items looked good, but didn't quite deliver on taste others tasted great but the appearance could have been improved.  Thankfully hardly any items were poor on appearance and taste. And yes, I am aware that it's easier to criticise than to to be correct!  Hopefully the judges feedback will be helpful for some entrants to make improvement to their products.

Obviously not every judge could taste all the 350 products entered.  We seem to get a lot of puddings,

and cakes on our table.

I think the cinnamon and apple cake (on the right below) was gluten free:

Sometimes I'd have a look at another table to see if they'd got a better deal!  I'd have liked to have tried the sausages and some of the bread looked very good.  I never got a chance to try any biscuits:

and I was particularly upset not to be on this table:

they seemed to be having a lot of fun testing different beers.

It was very hard picking the category winners.  For Best Beverage for instance how can you choose between a sparkling bottled water with tea, coffee, a liqueur, a mango lassi or this beer?

Eventually we managed to select the category winners:

The category winners were as follows:

Chutneys and Preserves 

The Farm at Burscough for their Lime Curd

Best Prepared Meal 

Cranstons for their lentil and ham soup

Best Baked Goods 

Alison's Homemade for their stem ginger biscuits

Best Dairy

Scoop for their rich chocolate indulgence ice-cream

  

Fresh Meat

Deliciously Wild for their venison medallions

Cured and Cooked Meats

Broughs of Birkdale for their dry sweet cure with sunflowers and honey bacon

Sausages

Shaws Meats for their pork and sun-dried tomato sausage

Fish and Seafood

Southport Seafood for their potted shrimps

Best Fruit and Vegetables

Wareings of Tarleton for their lettuce

Best Beverage

Halal Kitchen Ltd (Express Cuisine) for their mango lassi.

I was pleased to see that many of the producers have been already mentioned in this blog, I'll try and include some more as soon as I can.   I would like to thank Fine Food Food Northwest for running this event and everyone who entered and who made our jobs as judges so difficult.  


Web: www.foodnwawards.co.uk