Food

After months of blind tasting, deliberation and judging, the shortlist of finalists for the 2015 Food & Drink Devon Awards have been announced, with the winners revealed at a ceremony in Exeter on Monday 5th October. Entries from across the county included 144 products, 38 producers, 41 hospitality and 6 retail establishments judged by experts from the industry.

What should be included on a Full English breakfast plate? It’s a question that’s been the subject of furious and controversial debate across the UK for decades. Everyone has an opinion. Research has revealed that over a third of people from Birmingham say hash browns should be on the perfect Full English plate, a much higher proportion than the rest of Britain.

British Pub Week (31 October to 8 November) celebrates all that we love about the traditional Great British Pub. “Pubs are an important part of our heritage and with a good drink, people expect premium quality bar snacks,” says Jonty White, managing director of Portlebay Popcorn. More landlords are now getting serious about provenance of the food and drink they serve and that's where Portlebay comes in."

Chinese buffet restaurant, Big Wok, got a brand new look over the summer and is now under new management. The Birmingham restaurant invested £200,000 into a complete makeover of the entire venue which now has a new reception area, new wooden flooring, interactive signage, new seating and a suspended ceiling.

Sir Richard Branson is back with scaled up support for food and beverage entrepreneurs and the opportunity to take the US by storm. Virgin StartUp Foodpreneur Festival is back for a second consecutive year, with a mission to find Britain's best up-and-coming food and beverage businesses.

Forty years old this year, top UK cookery school Leiths is inviting baking enthusiasts to prove their cake-baking skills by creating a masterpiece for their birthday celebrations. Judged by John Whaite, 'Great British Bake Off' Winner and food writer, and Caroline Waldegrave Founding Principal and previously co owner and MD of the School, ambitious bakers will have the chance to win enviable prizes.

From trending to trendsetting, Speciality & Fine Food Fair 2015 has set the fine food and drink industry alight! The three day foodie extravanganza - in its new home of Olympia National - was a feast of taste, colour and opportunity. Hailed a huge success by organisers, plans are now under way for the 17th speciality spectacular, which will take place on September 4th - 6th 2016.

The Saint Lucia Tourist Board and renowned Saint Lucian Chef Ed Harris recently participated in the Harbourfront Centre’s International Iron Chef Competition in Toronto Canada on September 6^th & 7^th 2015. This year, the focus of the competition was on keeping it hot, spicy and sustainable and the Chefs were challenged to use local, sustainable ingredients from their homeland.

As the rest of Britain mourns over a very lacklustre summer, it’s been a hot summer on the awards front for Pushkar on Birmingham’s Broad Street. The fine dining Indian restaurant is celebrating a 2015 English Curry Award and a Diners’ Choice Award, as well as being selected to represent Birmingham as the Curry Capital of Britain during National Curry Week 2015.

Rich and alluring with a vibrantly yellow yolk; a humble duck egg from Blackacre Farm, Somerset, has beaten off competition from 10,000 other food and drink entries to achieve the highly coveted Great Taste 3-star award. Great Taste judges considered Waddling Free to be “perfection in a duck egg”, with other comments including “proud standing and succulent” and “a beautiful firm egg with a burst of sunshine in the yolk, great flavour.”

When it comes to foodie travel treats, 74% of people said that of the foods they look forward to most when on holiday, it is ice-cream that is top of their list, proving more popular than other options such as trying local delicacies, all-you-can-eat buffets and cocktails. Furthermore, according to some recent holiday makers, the best way to enjoy ice-cream is to have it for breakfast!

There's just under three weeks to go before Bristol's Harbourside will be buzzing with the return of the Grape and Grain Festival.  In its second year, visitors to this lively, fun and vibrant weekend event (18th – 20th September) will taste a multitude of craft beers, stunning ciders and superb wines from across the region, country and world.  

Celebrated Chef Craig Jones from the fabulous St. Lucian resort, Cap Maison arrived in Brighton earlier this week to participate in the first part of the International Chef Exchange with drakes, Brighton's top boutique hotel and fine dining restaurant.

Dorset-based social enterprise, Future Roots, and The Engine Room Restaurant near Dorchester are delighted to be reaping the rewards of their new partnership, with workers at the care farm now delivering a fresh basket of the finest local vegetables every week to the restaurant based at Poundbury Gardens.

It's not new news that the Med is home to some of the healthiest and most delicious cuisines out there, with an emphasis on fresh, flavourful produce, and made with love and respect for seasonal ingredients. Luca Del Bono, owner and founder of London's South Kensington Club and Iddu is very familiar with the passion that is found in proper cuisine and the memory it evokes.

Following the success of the Kitchen Table Project's very first Artisan Springboard, applications are now open for the Christmas 2015, twelve week programme. Do you have a shelf-ready product ready to launch? You could be one of just eight start up artisans who will once again be given the exciting opportunity to showcase your product to thousands of visitors at a pop up farm shop/café in the heart of Central London.