In search of the very best that Yorkshire can offer

With me is a team of food experts including Valerie Aston, a buyer for Proudfoot Supermarket, Scarborough, Stephanie Moon, who was deliciouslyorkshire champion 2009, Richard John, chef patron of Artisan Restaurant, Hessle and BBC Look North's presenter, Christa Ackroyd. Our job is to taste our way through a selection of the 460 entries from this year's 2010 deliciouslyorkshire awards.

Quite what we are going to taste though is a mystery until Elaine Lemm, chair of the judging panel briefs us. "This morning we are going to taste our way through the prepared food categories. We have 27 different sausages, black puddings and burgers, some cured meat, Yorkshire potato crisps and 13 pies to taste. After that, we have to judge the supreme category. This means choosing an overall winner from the 10 competition categories."

A selection of cooked meat products was placed on a table in front of us and we began tasting. A fine black pudding, a chorizo sausage, pastrami and some meat pastes. What did the judges think?

"The black pudding is excellent – meaty with a good flavour," said Richard.

"The pastrami looks really good on the plate" enthused Stephanie.

"But can pastrami or chorizo sausage ever be a Yorkshire product?" we mused.

If the ingredients are sourced from Yorkshire and the product made in Yorkshire then it is certainly worthy of having Yorkshire in its name, we decided.

Meanwhile a team of chefs were busy preparing the next round of products for tasting – 27 sausages.

I took a small bite of each. One tasted of asparagus, another of stilton cheese and one of bilberries.

More classical combinations seemed to work better such as honey and mustard or herbs such as chives or sage.

Yorkshire is famous for its meat pies. We had to choose the best three from a selection of 13. A beautifully crafted cold, raised pork pie with a firm meat filling and a little sage and onion stuffing sneaked under a thin crust caught my eye. So, to,o did a well filled, hot, beef and ale pie with a classic crimped lid.

"At the end of the day, a good pie is easy to spot. It has to be well crafted, have an excellent crust and a good quality, tasty meat filling," said Stephanie.

By 2pm we were all full and our palettes were jaded but we had our final task to complete. Ten products were brought ceremoniously before us and we had to choose an overall winner. They included a selection of meats, pies, teas, spice mixes, chocolates and liqueurs.

The results will be announced at the awards dinner on November 8.

n www.deliciouslyorkshire.co.uk