Category: Radio 4
Date: 24.11.2005
Printable version
A prison chef cooking fresh healthy meals; a family butchers' in Derbyshire; and a dairy farmer who runs his own milk round are all winners in this year's Food & Farming Awards.
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Previous winners include the dinner lady who inspired Jamie Oliver's school meals campaign; Prince Charles' favourite B&B; and the campaigner now advising the Government on healthy eating in some of our poorest inner-city communities.
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The winners were announced today at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, and will feature in a special edition of 91Èȱ¬ Radio 4's The Food Programme on Sunday 27 November at 12.30pm.
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The winners of this year's awards are:
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Best Dinner Lady/Man
Al Crisci - Catering Manager, HM Prison High Down, Sutton, Surrey
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91Èȱ¬ Food Personality Of The Year
Jamie Oliver
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Best Takeaway - Joint Winners
The Real Food Café - Tyndrum, Perthshire
Rhug organic burger bar - Corwen, Denbighshire
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The Farming Today Award For Farmer Of The Year
Peter Barfoot - Barfoots of Botley, Bognor Regis, West Sussex
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Best Food Producer
John Cottrell - Dairy Farmer, Wellington, Somerset
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Best Local Food Retailer
J W Mettrick & Sons Ltd - Glossop, Derbyshire
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Best National Or Regional Retailer
Waitrose
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The Derek Cooper Special Award For Best Food Campaigner/Educator
Bernard Gesch & Natural Justice
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The Judges' Special Award
Sustain
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The awards, in partnership with 91Èȱ¬ Local Radio, were created in 2000 to celebrate the people and organisations who produce and promote the best of British food.
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Al Crisci from HM Prison High Down wins the Best Dinner Lady/Man award*.
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One of the judges, Dr Margaret Rayman, commended Al's innovative recipes and range of fresh vegetables included in all the meals: "It was the most impressive of those visited for the sheer quality of the food - as good as you'd get in a restaurant - for a daily budget of £1.68 per person."
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She also praised the training scheme for prisoners enabling them to get NVQs in food-safety and preparation.
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The 91Èȱ¬ Food Personality Of The Year, voted for by the public, is awarded to chef Jamie Oliver. Many listeners commended him for "being brave, bold, enlightening, moving mountains and still producing mouth-watering dishes"; for "caring and having the guts and determination to show. how our youngsters can benefit from eating healthy, tasty, real food"; and for being "a homegrown hero - the 'Bob Geldof' of the nutritional debate."
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The Best Takeaway Award is shared this year. The Real Food Café in Tyndrum, Perthshire is an ex-Little Chef that in less than a year has transformed itself into a beacon of excellence - the best fish and chips its many nominees had ever tasted.
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Judge Sheila Dillon said: "The sourcing is as good as it could be and it was really great fish and chips."
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Its menu is traditional takeaway Scottish fare - battered sausages, burgers, fish and chips - but prepared from locally sourced, top-quality ingredients.
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They share the award with the Rhug Organic Burger Bar in Denbighshire. Judge Roopa Gulati says: "Rhug Organic Farm's hamburger bar is like no other. Beef for their meaty burgers is bred on the farm and fed from crops grown on their acreage.
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"This takeaway shows what fast food establishments across the country could - and should - be doing."
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The Farming Today Award for Britain's Farmer of the Year goes to Peter Barfoot of Barfoots of Botley in Bognor Regis. Peter Barfoot is truly King Corn, supplying the majority of Britain's retail corn market. The business also involves the growing, processing, packing and selling of semi-exotic fresh vegetables to the best of UK retailers, and Barfoots work in partnership with a dedicated grower base from around the world.
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Judge Christine Tacon commented: "We were extremely impressed, not only by the scale and efficiency of Peter Barfoot's business, but also by the way he does business. He insists on quality and takes pride in high environmental and agricultural standards."
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John Cottrell, a dairy farmer in Wellington, Somerset, is awarded this year's Best Food Producer. John thinks he may be the last farmer/retailer in Somerset, producing, processing, and delivering his own milk, providing a much valued local service to his doorstep customers.
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John uses a process that is mostly gravity-fed, avoiding the need to pump the milk except when it goes through the pasteurizing unit.
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Judge Kath Dalmeny said: "It is because of John's all-round commitment to quality milk, the local community, animal welfare and the environment that the judges are delighted to give John Cottrell the 2005 award for Best Food Producer."
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The Best Local Food Retailer award goes to JW Mettrick & Sons, a family-run butchers' in Derbyshire that can trace their meat from hillside through their own abattoir to their butchery and into their pies.
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Judge Robert Clark said: "In a category in which all four short-listed local retailers might have won this year, so high was the standard, JW Mettrick & Sons proved a particularly impressive winner - and an inspiration to all specialist food retailers facing relentless supermarket competition."
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This year's winner for Best National/Regional Retailer is Waitrose. Robert Clark described the company as a "worthy winner" and went on to add: "Waitrose's approach encapsulates all that the judges were looking for - excellent long-term relationships with suppliers, real customer care and dialogue, plus genuine commitment to quality produce and local products."
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Fellow judge Roopa Gulati added: "An eye for quality and respect for the ethics of retailing has been demonstrated by close ties with local producers and suppliers and an ear to consumer needs," calling it "a happier and healthier shopping experience."
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This year's Derek Cooper Special Award for the individual or organisation that's done the most to increase our understanding of good food and the vital role it plays in our lives goes to Bernard Gesch for his work with the charity Natural Justice*.
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Sheila Dillon said of his pioneering work into the effect of diet on the behaviour of young offenders: "This work proves the dramatic ability of improved nutrition to alter behaviour - it is invaluable to our society."
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The Judges' Special Award was given to Sustain, the alliance for 'better food and farming' that advocates food and agriculture policies and practices that enhance the health and welfare of people and animals.
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To celebrate Sustain's 20th anniversary, the judges would like to acknowledge their many achievements. Sustain represents 130 national public interest organisations working at international, national, regional and local level.
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Its reports and studies have been precursors to change in many now topical areas - school dinners, air miles - and without this thorough research many of the current changes would not have been possible.
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Judge Sheila Dillon said: "It was Sustain's work into food that made it possible to start thinking about what to do, and what was wrong with school dinners."
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The awards ceremony, hosted by Sheila Dillon, will feature in a special edition of Radio 4's The Food Programme on Sunday 27 November at 12.30pm, repeated on Monday 28 November at 4.00pm.
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*There will be a special edition of The Food Programme looking at prison food and featuring Al Crisci, HMP High Down Prison, and Bernard Gesch and Natural Justice on Sunday 8 January on Radio 4.
For further information and interview requests, please contact Radio 4 Publicity
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Pictures for the Radio 4 Food and Farming Awards can be obtained via the 91Èȱ¬ Pictures website.
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Notes to Editors
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The Food Programme is on Radio 4 every Sunday at 12.30pm and repeated on Mondays at 4.00pm. Farming Today is on Radio 4 every weekday morning at 5.45am and on Saturdays at 6.35am. You can listen again online at bbc.co.uk/radio4.
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The finalists in the Farmer of the Year category will be featured on Farming Today in the week of the awards ceremony.
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There will also be a separate edition of The Food Programme on 4 December where some of the country's top chefs will be served dinner, consisting of food produced by our award winners, and prepared by students from Birmingham College of Food.
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The chair of this year's judging panel was Raymond Blanc, chef, author and proprietor of the Michelin-starred Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons. This year's judging panel are: Kath Dalmeny from The Food Commission; Dr Margaret Rayman from the University of Surrey; retail analyst Robert Clark; Sheila Dillon, presenter of The Food Programme; Christine Tacon, General Manager of the Co-op's farming division, Farmcare; and the chef, writer and broadcaster Roopa Gulati.
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EH/AP
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