Top Sussex food event at the Amex

The Sussex Food and Drink Awards 2011/12 awards banquet will be hosted by the American Express Community Stadium, organisers Natural PR announced today.

The event is renowned as the Sussex foodie event of the year and includes a Sussex bubbly and ale reception, scrumptious seven-course banquet made entirely from local produce and a lively awards presentation, attended by leaders in the industry, as well as many die hard foodies.

“This is the first awards event booked at the stadium and we are thrilled to support the Sussex Food & Drink Awards, seeing this as an opportunity to showcase our superb food offer and the quality of our head chef, Fred Tobin, and his team,” said Elliott Moore, General Manager, Catering at the Amex.

The banquet will be held on 26th January 2012, hosted by Danny Pike from BBC Sussex, and tickets will be on sale throughout the year at the awards website – www.sussexfoodawards.biz

Now in its sixth year, the prestigious Sussex Food & Drink Awards is seeking the best food and drink producers, farmer, food/farm shop, farmers market, butcher, eating experience and young chef. Big name sponsors include The Southern Co-operative, South Downs National Park Authority and Collabor8, as well as long-term supporters Mayo Wynne Baxter, Knill James and Harveys Brewery.

Said Clive Beddall OBE, chairman of the judges: “We are excited about holding the event at such a stunning new venue with a chef who has such an impressive track record, which I believe includes preparing banquets at number 10 Downing Street and Chequers, when working as personal chef to John Major.

“We look forward to working with Fred to create a banquet of the exquisite quality which we have grown to expect at this wonderful celebration of Sussex food.”

The Sussex Food & Drink Awards will be launched at the South of England Show on June 9, at the President’s VIP Sussex breakfast, and the public can vote until October 2nd.

Everyone who votes online will be entered into a prize draw to win two tickets to the awards banquet and tickets are on sale at www.sussexfoodawards.biz

Brighton Foodie Awards May leaders announced

Over 1000 people have already voted in the Brighton & Hove Foodie Awards since it was launched as part of the city’s spring food festival last month, according to organisers Natural PR.

Every second Friday of the month, the Foodie leaders – those who have received the most votes from the public – will be announced by foodwriter Andrew Kay and Juice FM's Andrea Fox on her show, until voting closes in September and the final winners are presented with their awards at the Brighton & Hove Food and Drink Festival.

On May 13, in the lead for Best Restaurant is Terre a Terre, with Indian Summer in second place and continuing the Indian theme, the Chilli Pickle in third position.

Best Food Pub: The Prince George is leading the vote in the food pub category, closely followed by the Ginger Pig in second place, with the Basketmakers in third place.

Best Café: Iydea is storming ahead, Cloud 9 is in second place and Temptation is currently third.

Best Food Shop: Infinity Foods is in the lead with Taj in second place, followed by the Real Patisserie.

“We have had a fantastic start with huge enthusiasm from the public and local food outlets,” said Paula Seager, MD of Natural PR. “We hope that by announcing the leaders every month, a spirit of competition and excitement will develop and many other food outlets will join in and encourage their customers to vote for them. It also gives us a great opportunity to highlight our very best food outlets throughout the six months of the competition.”

“In this first month, it’s wonderful to hear vegetarians making their voices heard, with leaders including Infinity Foods and Terre a Terre and we are also hearing support for some lovely traditional pubs, which have combined great ale and local wines with excellent Sussex food.

“The Café category is particularly competitive this year and the food shop category is attracting votes for all kinds of shops, from grocery stores to bakers; from fishmongers to butchers, which is a great way for us to find out about the quality independent food shops we have in the city.

“The full list of outlets which have been voted for can be seen on the website and the competition is still wide open – we have five months of voting to go, so there’s plenty of time for others to get involved and we expect the leaders board to change frequently over the coming months.”

Find out more and place your vote at www.brightonfoodawards.com – everyone has one vote per category.