Q Guild members among Great Taste stars of 2016
Q Guild members – both butchers and corporate – across the UK have once again shone in the 2016 Great Taste Awards, described as the world`s most coveted blind-tasted food accreditation scheme.
Organised by The Guild of Fine Food, the annual showcase this year attracted 10,000 product entries, judged by over 500 of the most demanding palates – food critics, chefs, cooks, restaurateurs and producers, as well as a whole host of food writers and journalists, who decide which products are worthy of a 1-, 2- or 3-star awards.
Of the multiple Q Guild successes, the standout performer was London``s C Lidgate Butchers in Holland Park Road, with a glorious hat-trick of top-rated Great Taste 3-star awards for its HRH The Prince of Wales Sirloin Steak, Game Pie, and Thyme and Rock Salt Roasted Picanha.
The shop, which has picked up multiple accolades over the years in the annual highlight, also clinched a trio of 2-star awards at the latest renewal with its HRH The Prince of Wales Rib Eye Steak, Venison with Crushed Juniper Berries, and Wagyu Rib Eye.
For good measure, Lidgate`s also landed a six-strong 1-star awards windfall with Pesto Lamb Saddle, Middle Eastern Chicken Heart Skewers, Gluten-free grass-fed Beef Sausages, Mint and Rosemary English Lamb Sausage, Lamb, Leek and Apricot Pie, and Steak and Kidney Pie.
From North Yorkshire, Elite Meat in Starbeck, Harrogate, notched a notable brace of 2-star awards with its Pork Pie and Chicken Liver Pate with Caramelised Onion.
Owtons Butchers in Southampton landed five awards in total, gaining 2-stars for its Dry Cured Green Streaky Bacon – also chosen as the 2015 Q Guild Smithfield Awards supreme champion – and four 1-star ratings with its Smoked Back Bacon, Green Back Bacon, Venison Bacon, and Pork and Leek Sausage.
Cranston`s of Penrith in Cumbria collected a 2-star accolade with its multi award-winning Cumberland Sausage, also picking up 1-star with its Dry Cured Bacon.
Blagdon Farm Shop, north of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, also received 2-stars with its Wild Roe Venison Loin, while from Wales, another 2-star winner was Moody Sow Farm Shop in Old St Mellons with its Dry Aged Welsh Picanha Rump Roast.
North of the border, Mearns T McCaskie, of Wemyss Bay in Inverclyde, which joined the Q Guild at the beginning of this year, was another four times 1-star winner with its Smoked Back Bacon, Unsmoked Back Bacon, Italian Sausage and Black Pudding.
Also from Scotland, John Lawson Butchers in Uphill, West Lothian, rattled up a 1-star awards hat-trick with its Spanish Rack of Scotch Lamb, Steak and Haggis Pie and Scottish Potted Hough.
This success was repeated by Owen Taylor and Sons Butchers, of Leabrooks in Derbyshire, with the shop`s Lamb Rump, Huntsman Pork Pie and Duck and Apricot Cutting Pie.
C Johnson and Son in Upminster, Essex, clinched two 1-star awards with its Henry Burger and Writtle Sausage Roll, as did Blacker Hall Farm Shop in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, with its Chicken Crown Roast and Mini 3-Bird Roast.
Q Guild corporate members also figured prominently among the 2016 Great Taste winners.
Scotland`s MACDUFF Beef, from Wishaw in North Lanarkshire, picked up a top-rated 3-star accolade with its Pave Steak, while in Staffordshire, Packington Free Range, from Barton-under-Needwood, struck a trio of 1-star awards with three of its free-range offerings – Loin, Leg and Shoulder.
Other 1-star awards went to Patchwork Pate in Ruthin, Denbighshire, with its Festive Duck Liver Pate with Brandied Fruits, and to Kelly Bronze in Danbury, Essex, with its Whole Turkey.
Great Taste 2016 will reach its exciting finale on Monday, September 5, when the world of fine food gathers at the Royal Garden Hotel in London to find out the Golden Fork winners for each region at an awards dinner, with the final applause reserved for the Great Taste Supreme Champion 2016.
Q Guild manager Gordon Newlands said: `Yet again, our Q Guild butcher and corporate members have shown their mettle on this high profile stage. We congratulate them one and all.`
The Q Guild has its headquarters at 8-10 Needless Road, Perth, PH2 0JW. Contact Gordon Newlands on 07918762254 or 01738633160 email Gordon@qguild.co.uk
For further information on the Great Taste Awards, contact:
Amy Brice at Freshly Ground PR on 07717 893123 email amy@freshlygroundpr.co.uk.
Tortie Farrand at the Guild of Fine Food on 01747 825200 email tortie.farrand@gff.co.uk.