Deliciouslyorkshire held the 7^th Annual Food & Drink Awards in a marquee at Rudding Park Hotel, Harrogate on Monday night.  The marquee looked spectacular – a myriad of tiny lights glistening like stars, which created a magical atmosphere!

The Champagne cocktail drinks reception with canapés set the tone for what was a wonderful wine and dining experience.  The whole menu consisted of fantastic produced sourced from those companies shortlisted for an award and was prepared and served by the skilful team at Rudding Park under the watchful eye of their Executive Chef Stephanie Moon.

The awards ceremony, hosted by Nick Stafford (Hambleton Ales) and Nigel Barden (Radio 2), consisted of twenty awards for the best local food and drink.  The evening’s winners were as follows:

Confectionery:- Sciolti Chocolates – Serious Ginger Thins.

Fish and Seafood:- Whitby Seafish – Oak Smoked Salmon.

Ready to Eat Product:- Yorkshire Crisp Company – Lamb & Mint  Crisps.

Drink:- Raisthorpe Manor Fine Foods – Sloe Port.

Fresh Produce:-  Parkers Veg – Seasonal selection.

Dairy:- Shepherds Purse Cheeses – Monks Folly.

Sweet Preserve:- Mercers for Yorkshire – Strawberry Preserve.

Savoury Condiment:- Fruity Kitchen – Redcurrant Jelly.

Meat Product:- Moss Valley Fine Meats – Hot Smoked Cured Pork Belly.

Bakery Product:- Little Barn – Yorkshire Ale Cake.

Best Distributor of Local Products:- Delifresh.

Best Exporter:-  AL Simpkin.

Best Retailer:-  Keelham Farm Shop.

Best Yorkshire Breakfast:- Scaife Hall.

Best Fresh Meat,:- Swillington Organic Farm – Organic Chicken.

Best Use of Local Produce on a Menu:- The Black Swan at Ostead.

Best New Product:- Raisthorpe Manor Fine Foods – Slow Port.

Outstanding Newcomer 2011-2012:- Howardian Hebrideans.

Consumers Choice Award 2011-2012:- Boozy Infusions – Jamaican Ginger Cake.

The Deliciouslyorkshire Champion 2011-2012 awarded to Tim Bilton, who is a great ambassador for locally produced foods.

As you may have notice above, we were delighted to be awarded the Best Dairy Product for Monks Folly.  This is our naturally mould ripened, creamy log made from locally sourced cows milk.  Its matured for nine to ten weeks which gives it a soft, smooth texture, leaving a sweet buttery finish on the palate.  Over the past two years the quality of this cheese has received numerous accolades and this coming month it will be on sales nationally in Morrisons.

The evening was wrapped up with live music giving everyone the opportunity to have a good dance.  The whole event was fantastic and Deliciouslyorkshire will have to go some to out do themselves next year!

Judy x

After hours, I’m a keen cheesemaker and in my day-job, I’m always trying to get customers to break out and try a new cheese – after all, there’s plenty to choose from – over 700 cheeses are made on British soil.

My theory is that people become so stuck on cheddar (or anti-blue or A.N. Other cheese) because they just haven’t tried many other cheeses. Or, they had one cheese once that they didn’t like and hey presto! That becomes a generic “I don’t like sheep’s cheese.”

Right, and that’s all sheep’s cheese, for the rest of your life? Then, I cut them some Yorkshire Blue to try – and they’re genuinely surprised, telling me it’s full of flavour, moist and not sharp. And it’s blue. Oh…and try this Olde York…shhhh…did I mention it’s a sh**ps cheese?! Minds (and palates) are like parachutes…they only work when they’re open.

Just down the road from where I grew up, there’s an innovative, award-winning artisan team, who’ve been making cheese for over twenty years, going from strength to strength. Thanks to Judy and the team at Shepherd’s Purse, I recently had the chance to spend the day learning more about making high quality artisan cheese on a larger scale. It was an Olde York day and a great opportunity to see how it’s done, as well as getting stuck in, salting, turning and waxing (er, cheese that is). We won’t mention my attempts at hand-wrapping! Practice makes perfect?

Business has expanded considerably since Judy started out experimenting with sheep’s cheese and these days Shepherds Purse make ewes milk, cows milk – and even buffalo milk cheeses too. I really admire the way that SPC have retained their connection with the original North Yorkshire site where it all began, just out of Thirsk.

Other than their great products (I like them all, but personal favourites at the moment are the Yorkshire Blue (soft and subtle) and (silky and nut-buttery) Monks Folly), the team’s ongoing passion for cheese and enthusiasm for making new cheeses really struck me. Thanks everyone for hosting a cheese-tastic day!

The Cheesemongrel