Brian Turner officially launches Great British Cheese Awards
Chef Restaurateur and President of the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts Brian Turner officially launched the new Great British Cheese Awards at an event held this week at La Fromagerie, the acclaimed cheese room, shop and tasting café.
The Great British Cheese Awards have been launched with the specific aim to recognise, promote and reward excellence in the artisan cheese industry and are organised by Great British Chefs (the UK’s fastest growing food website) and Splat PR client Peter’s Yard, whose crispbread was recently named as “the best biscuit for cheese out there”. The awards will celebrate the best of British cheese produced and distributed by independent cheese makers and retailers and will stand apart from similar events as the general public will have a large influence on recognising and rewarding outstanding British cheese.
Brian Turner said of the awards “We have seen a great shift in cheeses being produced in Britain. Once there were only a handful of interesting British cheese, but now British cheese can stand proudly against some of the best European cheeses on the market.”
“As someone who has scoured the length and breadth of the country for my TV shows, I’ve come across some amazing artisan cheese producers and am delighted to discover more through the awards. On behalf of the judges we’re really looking forward to tasting the shortlisted cheeses and discovering the fascinating stories of the cheese makers and retailers behind them.”
“I would like to encourage people to nominate their favourite British cheeses, producers and retailers and to talk about British cheese. There will be a great opportunity to influence and shape the future of our cheese industry through these awards and ultimately get readers, friends and family excited about great British cheese.”
The Great British Cheese Awards will run across 9 categories from best speciality cheese retailer, best independent cheese producer, best firm cheese, right through to best fresh cheese. Artisan Cheese producers and retailers can enter for free and alongside this, the Great British Cheese Awards will bring together a community of fine food lovers, producers, chefs, restaurants, pubs, bloggers and food writers to nominate and vote for their favourites. Nominations will close on 19th June 2016.
The awards will not reply on tastings alone; ultimately, the people who eat cheese and buy cheese will be the ones who decide who deserves to win a prestigious award. Once nominations close, the voting process will commence from 1st July. This will then create a shortlist of finalists who will be evaluated by an expert judging panel. Judges so far confirmed include:
Brian Turner – Chef Restaurateur and President of the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts,
Chantelle Nicholson – Group Operations Director for Marcus Wareing Restaurants & Head Chef at Tredwells by Marcus Wareing,
Galton Blackiston – Owner & Chef Patron of Morston Hall,
Adam Woodyatt – Actor & Food Blogger,
Fiona Beckett – Food & Drink Journalist,
Patrick McGuigan – Food Journalist and Cheese Writer,
Andy Clarke – TV Food Producer,
Felicity Spector – Food Writer & Great Taste Awards Judge,
Chris Mercer – Editor of Decanter.com.
Co-founder of Peter’s Yard, Wendy Wilson-Bett said “At Peter’s Yard, our award-winning traditional sourdough crispbread complement a wide variety of cheese so we want to further strengthen our association with passionate producers, retailers and ‘great cheese’. The Great British Cheese Awards will provide the perfect vehicle for individual producers and retailers who make or sell cheese to gain recognition from the public and industry experts. We are therefore so pleased to be lead sponsor for these new awards and in turn work with and support artisan cheese producers and retailers. Our overall objective is to help raise the profile of artisan cheese producers and retailers and in turn encourage the general public to seek out and buy great British cheese.”
Mecca Ibrahim, Head of Marketing and Social Media at Great British Chefs said “Both Great British Chefs and Peter’s Yard rely on fantastic tasting ingredients and the people who produce them. By launching The Great British Cheese Awards, we hope to produce a catalogue of great artisan cheese and discover up-and-coming cheesemakers. We are giving consumers the opportunity to shape the future of British cheese and encourage them to expand their horizons and taste-buds when cheese buying. Together Great British Chefs and Peter’s Yard have a social media reach of over 1.3 million and we want to utilise this platform to help promote British cheese talent.”
The awards will culminate with a final awards ceremony which will be held in London at the end of October. Information and entry forms are available from www.greatbritishcheeseawards.co.uk.
Splat PR provides specialist food PR services to Peter’s Yard and as their agency, we are also involved in the successful launch and promotion of the new Great British Cheese Awards. Splat PR will be the main press contact for the duration of the awards.
