Sally Gunnell OBE hosted over a hundred Sussex food and drink business
leaders last week at a networking event celebrating the 68 finalists in the Sussex
Food and Drink Awards 2013/14, at the Norfolk Pavilion at the South of England
Showground in Ardingly, Mid Sussex.
Farmers, butchers, chefs, market organizers, shop
keepers, brewers and vintners, from the far reaches of East Sussex, West Sussex
and Brighton and Hove, enjoyed delicious local food and drink and met the
sponsor judges, winners from previous years and learnt about what could make
them the winner of this year’s coveted trophies.
“I want to congratulate all the finalists in this
year’s awards and this event is a great opportunity for finalists to discover
how to make the most of this competition which is all about boosting the local
food market,” said Sally Gunnell OBE, patron of the Sussex Food and Drink
Awards.
“Aside from receiving their trophies, Grand Finalists
get free tickets to THE Sussex foodie event of the year, the Sussex Food and
Drink Awards Banquet, which is a superb seven-course banquet created entirely
from local produce, to be held on 30th January – but most importantly, the
winners get huge respect and recognition.”
This year’s awards scheme was launched at the South of
England Show VIP opening breakfast on 6 June, with finalists nominated and
assessed by an expert panel of judges, overseen by newly appointed chair
William Goodwin, following the retirement of Clive Beddall OBE. All
agreed that the standard is incredibly high this year and the competition is
going to be extremely tough.
It’s going to be another really exciting year for the
awards with some truly excellent candidates including lots of new names, as
well as some familiar ones, who have made it onto the shortlist.
We are so
lucky that Sussex is blessed with a wealth of glorious food and drink, from the
beautiful South Downs and its coastal waters, to the huge number of creative
and hard-working producers and manufacturers in the county who are creating
award-winning food and drink every day.
This year the awards include:
Sussex Farmer of the Year Award sponsored by Spofforths
Best Sussex Food Producer sponsored by The Southern
Co-operative
Best Sussex Eating Experience sponsored by Mayo Wynne
Baxter
Best Sussex Farmers Market sponsored by Harveys
Sussex Butcher of the Year sponsored by Natural Farms
Best Sussex Food/Farm Shop sponsored by Cheese Please
& Natural PR
Sussex
Drink Producer of the Year sponsored by the Sussex Food & Drink Network
Nominations for Sussex Young Chef of the Year remain
open until the end of July, when the top six will be announced and go forward
as usual for the cook-off in October.
To see who made it onto the shortlist and to vote for your favourite, visit www.sussexfoodanddrinkawards.biz - details of how to text your vote can
also be found on the website.
