Nicholas
Soames MP opened public voting for finalists in the Sussex Food & Drink
Awards 2013/14 at the South of England Show VIP opening breakfast hosted by
Penelope Keith CBE DL, with speakers including Peter Kendall, president of the
NFU, Jane King, editor of Farmers Weekly, and Andy Marshall, poultry expert, on
the topic of food provenance [June 6].
The
68 finalists in this year’s awards were nominated by the public and assessed by
an expert panel of judges along with newly appointed chair William Goodwin and
are published on www.sussexfoodawards.biz, where people can vote
online. All agreed that the standard is
incredibly high this year and the competition is going to be extremely tough.
Said
Paula Seager, co-director of Natural Partnerships CIC, who runs the awards with
Hilary Knight, “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.”
The
Sussex Food and Drink Awards, now in their eighth year, are the only awards
that highlight, recognise and support Sussex farmers and producers and the
businesses that sell and promote their produce.
Olympic gold medal winner, Sally Gunnell OBE, is patron to the awards
and a great supporter of locally produced food believing that it is the way
forward for a healthy lifestyle.
This year they
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
A
slight change this year is that the nominations for The Sussex Young Chef of
the Year will remain open until the end of July, when the top six will be
announced and go forward as usual for the cook-off in the autumn.
Voting for these prestigious awards is open until September
13 and the
top three which receive
the most votes in each category and re-considered by the awards judges, will
become grand finalists. These will be
announced in November and all grand finalists will be invited to THE foodie
event of the year, the Sussex Food & Drink Awards banquet at the American
Express Community Stadium on Thursday 30th January 2014.
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.
The
Sussex breakfast at the launch was created by Jimmy Gray, current Sussex Young
Chef of the Year, and the team from Jeremy’s at Borde Hill.
