And the winners are…
Posted on 05. Mar, 2010 by Admin in 2009 Awards
The mid Suffolk based cyder company Aspalls emerged as the big winner in the 2009 EADT Suffolk magazine Food and Drink awards held at the West Wing, Ickworth.
They collected three awards – best Suffolk drink (sponsored by Choose Suffolk), best Suffolk product (Southwold Pier) and producer of the year (Waitrose, Saxmundham and Sudbury)- with the judges commending their organic cyder as “fresh and aromatic, grown all around Suffolk, with a true vision for the future.”
The winners of this year’s EADT Suffolk Food & Drink Awards
Other winners were: Best Restaurant (sponsored by Promotion Wine), The Blyth, Southwold; Best Butcher (BBC Suffolk), Sotherton Farm Beef and Pies, Halesworth; Best Dining Pub (The West Wing, Ickworth), Sibton White Horse; Best Informal Dining (Debenvale), Hall Farm Cafe, Stratford St Mary; Best Tea/Coffee Shop (Gallery Thea), Wild Strawberry Cafe; Best Farm Shop (Tastes of Anglia), Hollow Tree Farm; Best Delicatessen (Hamish Johnston Fine Cheeses), Lawsons of Aldeburgh; Best Baker (Marriages the Master Millers), The Cake Shop, Woodbridge.
A new award, Suffolk Food Hero (sponsored by colnestoves and Esse) was awarded to Nick and Joan Hardingham, of Alder Carr Farm. The couple have transformed a rundown farm near Needham Market into a thriving family business known for its farmers’ markets, farm shop and its own fruit ice company.
Click here to see a gallery of all the winners.
As in previous years the main sponsors of the awards were Adnams, and the event was hosted by BBC Suffolk broadcaster Lesley Dolphin and food writer and cookery school owner Mark David.
Some 140 guests, including sponsors, judges and contestants, attended the luncheon which celebrated the very best of Suffolk food and drink.
EADT Suffolk magazine editor Richard Bryson said: “Each year the awards grow so that we can honour all manner of eating-out places and producers in the county and it is great to see so many doing well despite these difficult economic times.
“The national media don’t always give us the credit we deserve so at the magazine we like to bang the drum for our very fine food and drink.
“The feedback we get is that the awards are getting better each year but it would be nice to get more entries from west Suffolk, there are a lot of fine places to eat and talented producers that side of the county so please put yourself forward next year!”
