Finalists fit to make the mouth water

Rosemary Shrager, the television personality, chef and enthusiastic supporter of local food producers, will this year host the Yorkshire Post Taste Yorkshire Food Awards.

The awards are held towards the end of September at York Guildhall as the climax to the York Food and Drink Festival.

A record number of entries for the awards were received this year, many of them from first-timers.

After careful consideration all the entries were reduced to a shortlist and the awards’ judges, chaired by restaurateur Michael Hjort, the director of the York Food and Drink Festival, invited those selected to submit their products for the judging panel’s tasting day at Melton’s Too restaurant in York.

In what turned out to be a highly competitive year, the following made it through as the finalists. The winners will be announced at the awards dinner at York Guildlhall on Friday, September 23..

Finalists are listed alphabetically by category with the product they entered:

Pies

* Billy’s Farm Shop. Steak, red wine and mushroom pie.

* Drewtons Ltd. Steak pie

* Glaves Butchers near Scarborough. Pork pie. 01723 859523

Meat

* Billy’s Farm Shop. Dry cured back bacon

* Geo Middlemiss, Otley. Yorkshire Pastrami

* Rose Wood farms. Grass fed Dexter

Dairy

* Shepherd’s Purse. Bluemin White Cheese

* Yorvale. Diabetic vanilla ice cream

* Yummy Yorkshire Ice Cream Company. Chilli Jam Man ice cream

Home Brew

* Great Newsome Brewery. Frothingham Best.

* Haworth Steam Brewery. Fallwood.

* Wold Top Brewery. Anglers Rewards.

Growers

* Copperwheat Agriculture. Yorkshire Grown Garlic

* Newfields Organic Produce. Carrots onions, potatoes

* B Whitely Farmshop and Nursery. Albenga Tomato Salad

Handmade.

* Hayloft Foods. Boozy Onion and Dirty Carrot Soup.

* Pattacakes. Apple strudle and Strawberry Shortcake.

* Lottie Shaw’s. Yorkshire Parkin Biscuit

In addition there’s an award which is decided not by the panel of judges but by the popular vote of the public.

To take part in this vote, simply go to the York Food and Drink Festival market place on Monday, September 18. All you need to do then is pick up a voting form and then tour the markets, sample as you wish and then vote for your choice of winner for the Yorkshire Post Reader’s Award.

This will be announced, along with all the previously judged categories, at the awards dinner hosted by Rosemary Shrager on September 23. The dinner is open to the public.

The menu, designed to highlight the produce of previous winners of this competition, will be:

Salad of Poached Egg (from Ian Taylor’s Free Range Eggs) with locally grown organic leaves and dressed with Yorkshire Rapeseed Oil.

Roast Veal (from Taste Tradition) with green herbs and late summer vegetables.

Selection of Cheese from Shepherd’s Purse and Lowna Dairy

Almond and Apple Slice (with Raisethorpe Manor Raspberry Gin.

An aperitif and red and white wines will be selected from the Yorkshire Post Wine Club.

For tickets call 01904 466687 or go to http://www.yorkfoodfestival.com/festival.php?day=8*

The York Food and Drink Festival starts on September 16 with a multitude of goodies in store.

Just scanning the first day’s programme reveals some of the variety on offer and which should suit all tastes, from the grazer to the gourmet.

It includes an exploration of the hidden health remedies of spices and herbs; a guided tour of historic pubs; a Slow Food chocolate taste workshop; a hands-on gingerbread workshop for children and at teatime Latin music and salsa around the Fountain Cafe in Parliament Street begins.

That evening the Yorkshire Post Wine Writer, Christine Austin, will giving a delightful tutored tasting of Burgundy, Port and other wines in the sumptuous setting of York’s historic Mansion House.

The festival’s daily programme runs in parallel with regular events, demonstrations and tastings in the festival markets, beer tent, the Ale Trail, and Grazing Cafe.

There are also some superb restaurant offers that are worth checking out. And a voucher booklet offers additional value for every day of the festival.

WHY NOT COME DINE WITH ME IN YORK

A festival innovation is Dine at My Table which includes a dinner hosted by a nun, eating in the home of a TV star and MasterChef finalist and dining in style with some of Yorkshire’s finest chefs cooking for the City’s Lord Mayor at the Mansion House. This usually means an intimate meal, with up to six or eight people dining. Those buying a ticket need to be adventurous and remember that these meals are often prepared by amateur cooks in their own homes. If you would like to host one of your own, go to http://www.yorkfoodfestival.com/sub-pages/dine-at-my-table.php