West Cork Success

Proven Fine Food from Ireland West Cork’s Woodcock Smokery achieved another resounding success in the annual Great Taste Awards held on Monday 7 September in Fortnum and Mason’s Food Hall. Owner Sally Barnes not only won Best Irish Speciality Award for her wild smoked salmon but also gained a Special Commendation from the judges.
In 2006, Woodcock Smokery was awarded Best Speciality Product, Best Fresh Product and Supreme Champion in the Great Taste Awards, the ultimate recognition for food producers in the UK and Ireland and the most prestigious award in speciality food and drink.
Sally Barnes is also the Ambassador for The Taste of West Cork Food Festival 2009. This annual festival celebrates the range and quality of food produced in West Cork and its artisan producers in the County Cork area.
The Great Taste Awards is organised annually by the Guild of Fine Food with more than 100 leading chefs, cookery writers, retail buyers and other food & drink specialists judging thousands of foods in a process lasting several months.
The best products – most of which are available in delis and farm shops – are awarded one, two or three gold stars in a scheme that echoed the Michelin star scheme for restaurants, with regional and national awards also being presented. September saw the final judging of the “best of the best” at Fortnum & Mason, which also sponsored the Supreme Champion trophy. A three-star gold is the highest level of award any producer can aspire to and is recognised as the definitive independent accreditation of quality.
The chefs, cookery writers and celebrity foodies on this year’s final judging panel included TV chef Antony Worrall Thompson, restaurateur Mark Hix and former Masterchef winner Thomasina Miers.
A surprise addition to the panel was Radio 2 DJ Chris Evans. On the day the BBC revealed he would be taking over Terry Wogan’s breakfast show from next January, Evans raced to Fortnums after his Drivetime show to take part in final judging. The judges’ deliberations were broadcast live on TV screens to an audience of over 400 food producers and buyers as they sampled some of 2009’s Great Taste
Awards three-star gold-winners on display in Fortnum’s famous Food Hall.
Chairman of judges Simon Burdess, Fortnums’ trading director, announced a special commendation for Woodcock Smokery’s wild smoked salmon. Owner Sally Barnes collected the Supreme Champion title in 2006 but was nearly put out of business by the closure soon after of Ireland’s wild salmon fishery. Sally has rebuilt the business on wild-caught Scottish salmon and came within a few votes of winning her second Supreme Champion title this year.
The awards also generate huge business for those who achieve the gold standard. Over the past five years, they have generated over £2.6 million additional sales and 19,900 new listings.
Last autumn, news about gold winning foods reached a massive 35 million consumers. Reports appeared in The Sunday Times, The Guardian and The Independent. Winners featured on The Alan Titchmarsh Show, UKTV’s Market Kitchen and on BBC Radio 2’s Chris Evans Drivetime Show.
Irish online travel guide, www.lookaroundireland.com, congratulated the company on their remarkable success.