Chesterfield food producer among the Great Taste winners of 2020
A food producer based in Chesterfield, The Crooked Pickle Co, has won Great Taste awards for two of its most popular products.
The Korean Pickled Garlic was awarded a 1-star Great Taste award, which means judges dubbed it a food that delivers fantastic flavour, and the Bread & Butter Pickles achieved a 2-star Great Taste award, which means judges dubbed it above and beyond delicious.
Judged by 144 of the most discerning palates, Great Taste is the most coveted of all food and drink awards. As well as a badge of honour, the unmistakable black and gold Great Taste label is a signpost to an outstanding product.
There were 12,777 entries from 106 different countries into Great Taste this year and of those products, 205 have been awarded a 3-star, 1,294 received a 2-star and 3,818 were awarded a 1-star accolade.
This year’s winners have been found through a combination of remote judging and socially distanced judging sessions, after the lockdown began just one week into the schedule. This necessitated a swift and comprehensive reinvention of the Great Taste process, all in time to provide a much-needed boost for food and drink producers during the all-important Christmas period.
Recognised as a stamp of excellence among consumers and retailers alike, Great Taste values taste above all else, with no regard for branding and packaging. Whether it is cake, coffee, kippers or kombucha being judged, all products are removed from their wrapper, jar, box or bottle before being tasted. The judges then savour, confer and re-taste to decide which products are worthy of a 1-, 2- or 3-star award.
The panel of judges this year included; cook, writer and champion of sustainable food, Melissa Hemsley, cook, writer, stylist and voice of modern vegetarian cooking, Anna Jones, celebrated Spanish chef, José Pizarro, Kavi Thakrar from Dishoom, food writer and cook, Xanthe Clay, and baker and author, Martha Collison, as well as food buyers from Selfridges, Fortnum & Mason and Waitrose. These esteemed palates have together tasted and re-judged the 3-star winners to finally agree on the Golden Fork Trophy recipients and the Great Taste 2020 Supreme Champion.
The Crooked Pickle Co were also finalists in last year’s Chesterfield Food & Drink Awards under the Food Producer of the Year category.
Felix Mendelsohn, founder and owner of The Crooked Pickle Co. explains: “Having a keen interest in all things food since as long as I can remember, being awarded for both my Bread & Butter Pickles and the Korean Pickled Garlic is pretty awesome. I just wanted to share my love of these wonderful pickles and now I’m an award winner. Time to order new labels complete with our new awards logo I think!”
“I’ll be celebrating with my wonderful family at the weekend, enjoying a few ice cold beers and maybe some home made burgers topped of course with our now famous pickles. Heaven!”
Great Taste 2020 will reach its exciting finale in late October, when the Golden Fork trophy winners and the Great Taste Supreme Champion 2020 are announced at the virtual Great Taste Golden Fork awards event.
