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Cairnsmhor Crushed Black Pepper Crackers

Cairnsmhor products, a range of hand baked biscuits, oatcakes and crackers, has won seven gold awards at the prestigious Great Taste Awards. These included four 2-star gold awards and three 1-star gold awards for products including their Haggis Flavour Oatcakes, Lemon Shorties and Wholegrain Mustard Crackers.

The Great Taste Awards are considered the most important food award scheme in the UK. Rigorous and completely independent, Great Taste is to speciality food and drink what Michelin is to fine dining. In total more than six thousand food and drink products were blind-tasted, tested and discussed during two months of intense judging by 350 judges, comprising food writers, chefs, deli and farm shop owners, food producers and buyers. To achieve a two star gold award up to 20 judges must agree that a product is ‘faultless’.

Cairnsmhor is a luxury food range that takes classic products and gives them an indulgent injection of flavour. With a Scottish feel but broad appeal, all Cairnsmhor products are hand baked in Scotland, using Scotland’s finest ingredients.

The gold award winning products received the following comments by the judges:

Crushed Black Pepper Crackers

Add some good brie on a hot summers’ day – yum! The pepper is inviting rather than overpowering. Good texture. Good fresh pepper aroma and flavour. Characterful.

Parmesan & Pepper Oatcakes

The size and texture and thickness is great. The pepper does come through well and is pleasant. With a little more tweaking of flavours this could warrant 3 stars.

Wholegrain Mustard Crackers (New)

This is a lovely product. The flavour of mustard is good and subtle, but you can definitely taste it. The flavour wouldn’t interrupt the (added) cheese though. It has a great texture as well – baked very well and a good crunch. This is an excellent product. Good crisp texture. Mild mustard flavour.

Haggis Flavour Oatcakes

Lovely flavour, which does capture the savoury flavour of haggis. Good texture with the oatmeal as well. An excellent product in the way that it captures the flavour of haggis.

Traditional Scottish Oatcakes

Good oaty texture strong flavour. Good balance sweet/savoury. You can taste full flavour of oats rather than sugar or salt as is often the case with oatcakes. Good flavour including salt; worthy of a gold.

Lemon Shorties

Lovely product. A great texture, not too short but just the right level of crunch. The lemon flavour is great, not overpowering but definitely evident.

Raspberry Shortcake

The product looks great and is innovative. The raspberry flavour is good.

Cairnsmhor is available in delis and independent retailers across the UK or direct from www.thistleproducts.co.uk .

The results of the 2010 Great Value Wine and Trophy Awards have been announced today.

And there is some great news for England in the shape of Camel Valley Wines (www.camelvalley.com) in Cornwall which has knocked France off its pedestal by scooping top prize, the Sparkling Rosé Trophy, beating other Gold medallists from Champagne and Australia. It also won English Sparkling Trophy for its 2008 Pinot Noir Rosé Brut (£24.95). Overall, France pride was maintained as the top trophy-winning nation, with an impressive 21 trophies.

14 Great Value Awards – judged on style, availability and price – have been awarded in this year’s competition providing consumers with accessible and affordable wines particularly in the supermarkets.  The results are:

• Great Value Sparkling Wine Under £10, Brut Natural 2007, £9.99, South Africa, Marks & Spencer
• Great Value Sparkling Wine between £10 and £15, Lambrusco Reggiano Concerto, 2009, RRP £12, Italy, EH Booth, Everywine.co.uk, Harrods wine shop, Valvona & Crolla, Vinum
• Great Value Sparkling Wine between £15 and £20, Waitrose Champagne Brut NV, £19.99, France, Waitrose
• Great Value White Wine Under £6 Moon Bridge Riesling, 2009, £5.49, Australia, Marks & Spencer
• Great Value Rosé Wine between £6 and £10, Secano Rosé Pinot Noir, 2009, £7.49, Chile, Marks & Spencer
• Great Value White Wine between £6 and £10, Falanghina Campania, 2009, RRP £9.99, Italy, Laytons Wine Merchant, Mondial Wine, Oddbins Fine Wine, Winetraders
• Great Value White Wine between £6 and £10, Domaine Villargeau Sauvignon Blanc, 2009, RRP £9.99, France, Majestic Wine Warehouse, Daniel Lambert Wines, Bristol Wine Co
• Great Value Red Wine Under £6, La Différence Carignan, 2009, £5.81, France, Tesco
• Great Value Red Wine between £6 and £10, Reserve Shiraz, 2008, £8.99, Australia, Waitrose
• Great Value Red Wine between £10 and £15, Cuvée Alexandre Cabernet Sauvignon, 2008, RRP £12.99, Casa Lapostolle, Chile, Berkmann Wine Cellars, The Vineyard, Slurp.co.uk, Hailsham Cellars
• Great Value Sweet Wine between £10 and £15, Tamar Ridge Kayena Vineyard Botrytis Riesling, 2007, £13.99, Australia, Waitrose, Vin du Van Wine Merchants, Topsham Wines, Philglass & Swiggot, Bowland Forest Vintners, Adnams Wine Merchants
• Great Value Fortified Wine under £10, La Gitana Manzanilla NV, £8.39, Spain, Waitrose
• Great Value Fortified Wine Under £10, Fonseca Bin 27 NV, £9.99, Portugal, Morrisons
• Great Value Fortified Wine between £10 and £15, Campbells Rutherglen Muscat NV, RRP £11.49, Australia, Adnams Wine Merchants, Bon Coeur Fine Wines, Christopher Piper Wines, Oddbins

Visit the IWC website www.internationalwinechallenge.com for the full list of winners

Gerard Basset MS, MW, one of the country’s best known Sommeliers and owner of Hotel TerraVina in Hampshire, has won the Association de la Sommellerie Internationale (ASI) World’s Best Sommelier Competition, held in Chile from the 12th-15th April 2010.

The competition attracted candidates from each of the ASI’s 51 member countries, and consisted of a quarter final, semi final and the final, in front of an audience with rigorous written and practical exams, including blind tastings and service role plays to test the candidates’ knowledge of wine, spirits, and other beverages and food and wine pairing, as well as their service skills to determine the winner of the competition. It is very well known that the competition is hard, intense and demands complete dedication and commitment to the industry.

French-born Basset, one of the co-founders of the successful Hotel du Vin chain has the distinction of being the only person in the world who is a Master of Wine, Master Sommelier and who has the Wine MBA. He moved to England, 27 years ago, becoming Head Sommelier at Chewton Glen, the Michelin-starred hotel in Hampshire. In 1989 he won UK Sommelier of the year. 1992 he won the Best International Sommelier for French Wines (Paris). In 1996 he won the Best Sommelier of Europe and in 1998, he qualified as a Master of Wine, having already qualified as a Master Sommelier in 1989.

Gerard says “I am absolutely delighted and completely overwhelmed to have won. It’s been a long hard road with many many hours of training for the competition – but to be crowned the World Champion is beyond words”.

From sheep’s milk ice cream, gluten-free syrup sponge and free-from fusilli with amaranth to gluten-free fish fingers washed down with a gluten-free glass of beer, nearly 200 freefrom products have made it onto a very long ‘shortlist’ for the FreeFrom Food Awards 2010 – some indication of the spectacular growth seen in this sector of the food industry in recent years.

The FreeFrom Food Awards are the only industry awards that celebrate excellence in this field. Now in their third extremely successful year, the 2010 awards have attracted over 1,000 freefrom entries from every type of supplier from one man/woman bakers to multinational food manufacturers.

The awards were started by www.foodsmatter.com, a website dedicated to covering all aspects of freefrom food.

Says Michelle Berriedale-Johnson: “The response to the launch of the awards has just been fantastic and mirrors the expansion in the whole market. Whereas in year one (2008) we had maybe 30 entries for the bread or the cake section, in year two (2009) we had 60 – this year (2010) we have had over 100!”

The final judging to choose the winners of the 2010 awards will take place at the end of March.

For the full list see below or go to http://www.freefromfoodawards.co.uk/shortlist_10.html

Losing one Michelin star can horrifying for a restaurant, losing two can be a straight out disaster, but now the Goose located in the Oxfordshire town of Britwell Salome now has to face how to deal with losing three.

The staff at the former one Michelin star restaurant walked out after a dispute over the business’s direction taking the award status along with them.

At the moment, the restaurant is closed due to what their voice messages says is a set of ‘unforeseen circumstances.’  On the other hand, a notice hanging in the window of the stone building states that the restaurant is closed for refurbishment and will open its doors again under new management on March 16^th.

Chef Ryan Simpson walked out along with his staff last week after a debate with the owner, Paul Castle, who stated that he planned to change the format of the restaurant into a pub.

Simpson was forced to regain the Michelin star because the previous chef left stating there were financial difficulties.  In a statement yesterday Simpson stated that he did not like the way Castle planned to alter the business.

The Goose first won a Michelin star in 2005 but lost it after Chef Mike North moved to another restaurant.  It then once again received the Michelin star in 2008 with Chef Matthew Tomkinson but after only six months left because he felt the financial side of the business was in disarray.

Edinburgh’s Wedgwood has been named the best new UK restaurant outside of London by Hardens in its 2010 restaurant guide.

The winners were chosen after a survey that included around 8,000 diners. Hardens also reviews around 1,850 restaurants in all of Britain’s major cities before listing its top choices.

Wedgwood is run by Paul Wedgwood and is found in the Old Town of Edinburgh.  It received the Remy Martin VSOP over the restaurants of Turners in Birmingham, Sam’s in Brighton, The Fish House in Chilgrove, West Sussex, and Vatika in Southampton.

Co-editor of the guide, Peter Harden, said that it was only appropriate that Wedgwood received the award given that Edinburgh has become the best city in the UK for top end dining followed by London.  This is due to the fact that it offers a traditional dining experience that is of the top quality.

Also receiving notice from the dining guide was Ludlow’s Mr. Underhill, which was honoured with the Remy Martin XO Excellence Award for showing consistency and all round excellence for a long period of time.  Although the owners of Mr. Underhill retired last year they placed the restaurant on the market with the same name.

Runners up for the same award were Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons in Oxfordshire, Northcote in Langho, Lancashire, The Waterside Inn in Bray, and Gildleigh Park in Chagford, Devon.

Also praised in the guide was the mid market Italian chain run by Jamie Oliver as a great contribution to the world of dining.