No Whitby chippies have been shortlisted for the Good Food Award for Fish and Chips 2020
The list only includes four fish and chip restaurants located on the coast - three in Hull and one in Scarborough. The rest of the Yorkshire winners are inland.
Absent from the shortlist is The Magpie Cafe in Whitby - a world-famous gastronomic destination with one of the best reputations in Britain for the quality of its fish. The late Sunday Times restaurant critic A A Gill even hailed its signature dish as the 'best fish and chips in the world' when he ate there in 2016, shortly before his death from cancer, with the comedian Jimmy Carr while visiting the set of The Grand Tour nearby. It was to be his final review.
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Hide AdHowever, the business does appear in the Good Food Awards' categories for cafes and bistros.
Seven chippies in Whitby won awards in 2019 but were not nominated again this year - Trenchers; Royal Fisheries; The Whitby Fish and Chip Company; Fish Box; Silver Street Fisheries; Quayside Fish and Chip Restaurant; and North Bay Fisheries in Scarborough.
The Good Food Awards have been running since 2002, and in 2016 separate categories, including one for fish and chips, were introduced.
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Hide AdWhitby residents took to Twitter to express astonishment that The Magpie, which has been open since 1939, had been overlooked.
Jon Stokoe commented:-
"There are 200 winners in the Good Food Award's best chippy of the year apparently...and none in Whitby? What kind of complete and utter madness is this?"
Amanda Wragg replied: "Complete and utter madness. I was at The Magpie Cafe last night: epic."
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Hide AdSylvia Crookes responded: "Well I know three. The one overlooking the sea, the one near the Magpie...and the Magpie."
The 15 Yorkshire winners are:-
- Blue Whale Fish Bar, Maltby
- Deans, Scarborough
- The Katch, Northallerton
- Clarkies Traditional Fisheries, Leeds
- Caseys, Ossett
- Hill Top Village Fisheries, Slaithwaite
- Fish Dish, Bradford
- Croft Street Fisheries, Pudsey
- Goldenfry, Hull
- Sea Urchin, Ossett
- Castle Fisheries, Richmond
- The Funky Fish, Hull
- Ranmoor Friery, Sheffield
- Plenty of Fish and Chips, Mytholmroyd
- Cave Street Fisheries, Hull