Barkham Blue wins Best Blue Cheese Award at the Great British Cheese Awards
Barkham Blue Cheese has won the Best Blue Cheese award at the inaugural Great British Cheese Awards which were launched earlier this year with the specific aim to recognise, promote and reward excellence in the artisan cheese industry. Over 7,500 people voted for their favourite cheeses, producers and retailers in the first Great British Cheese Awards which were deliberately set apart from similar events as they gave the general public a large influence on recognising and rewarding outstanding British cheese by enabling them to vote for their favourites.
Only those cheese producers and retailers who received the most votes in each category were shortlisted for an award. A prestigious panel including Brian Turner - Chef Restaurateur and President of the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts, Chantelle Nicholson – Group Operations Director for Marcus Wareing Restaurants and Head Chef at Tredwells by Marcus Wareing, Galton Blackiston – Owner & Chef Patron of Morston Hall, Adam Woodyatt – Actor & Food Blogger, Patrick McGuigan – Food Journalist and Cheese Writer, Andy Clarke – TV Food Producer, Felicity Spector – Food Writer & Great Taste Awards Judge, Chris Mercer – Editor of Decanter.com and Paul Thomas – Dairy Technologist have together tasted and judged the overall category winners.
Barkham Blue Cheese is made by Hampshire Fare member, Two Hoots Cheese. It is a small family business established by husband and wife Sandy and Andy Rose. They have been making cheese on their farm on the Hampshire / Berkshire border since 2003. The Barkham Blue, which has a distinctive appearance is made in the traditional way using pasteurised milk.
Andy Rose commented on the win: “We would like to thank all those that helped Barkham Blue reach the finals with their nominations and votes. Barkham Blue was up against some serious competition from the other worthy finalists in this category so this award was totally unexpected.
We were absolutely delighted and very proud to hear that we'd won the award of Best Blue Cheese, it's very satisfying to think that all the hard work is appreciated. None of this would be possible however without the ladies in the dairy, Nia, Mary and Lesley that help us on a daily basis to produce such a wonderful, consistent local blue cheese.”
The Great British Cheese Awards were organised by Great British Chefs and Peter’s Yard. Ollie Lloyd, CEO and founder of Great British Chefs said “Both Great British Chefs and Peter’s Yard rely on fantastic tasting ingredients and the people who produce them. We launched The Great British Cheese Awards with the hope to produce a catalogue of great artisan cheese and discover up-and-coming cheesemakers. We are grateful to the remarkable support we have received in our first year from producers, retailers and especially the general public. To achieve 7500 votes in the first year is phenomenal. Together Great British Chefs and Peter’s Yard have a social media reach of over 1.3 million and we will utilise this platform to continue to help promote British cheese talent.”
This is where you can try Barkham Blue.
Find out more about all the winners and runner ups on www.greatbritishchefs.com/cheese-awards/winners