THE Great Taste Awards, the UK’s leading food awards scheme, run by the Guild of Fine Food, based in Gillingham, was suspended when the Covid-19 lockdown began in March.
The Guild has devised a system of remote judging, and work has resumed aiming to get all 12,000 products judged by the end of August.
One week of judging at Gillingham remained before the lockdown, but although work on the Great Taste Awards stopped, the Guild team, led by managing director John Farrand (pictured), immediately swung into action, providing a support and advice service for independent food retailers, deli-owners and food producers. The service has kept the independent sector in touch with all the latest advice, and provided a wide range of practical help and contacts that have been a lifeline for many businesses.
In the meantime, plans were made for Great Taste judging to resume with experienced judges working from their own home base with the hope that judging will resume at Guild HQ at Gillingham by the end of July.
John said: “With a fair wind, we should be done by the end of August with results two to three weeks after that. We will want the winning producers to be able to celebrate in time for the Christmas trade.”
A new business in Covid-19 time
Most people would agree it’s a brave move to open a new shop in the middle of a pandemic.
Carlee Wakefield is hoping that the timing is right for her new Warminster town centre business, Iris and Olive. She is focusing on products that are sustainable, many by makers and artisans from the south and west, plus selected books, including Deepest Wiltshire, which raises money for three Wiltshire charities.
The attractive little shop, in former Specsavers premises, is near the town’s Athenaeum Centre and popular Café Journal. Carlee, who was in the army for some years, plans to offer a range of workshops and classes upstairs, and to serve coffee and tea, when the Covid-19 crisis is over, and social distancing rules are relaxed.
The range of goods includes handmade chocolate, baby and children’s clothes, designed to be handed down not discarded after one child, hand-made soaps, and specially selected teas and hand-prepared drinking chocolate. She describes her ethos as “thoughtful gifting and community. We stock brands either made in the UK, handmade, directly benefit the people who make the products or are purchased from responsible suppliers.”
One of the products is Arthouse Unlimited, handmade chocolates with beautiful wrappers, produced by a collective of artists living with complex epilepsy and learning disabilities and difficulties, all of whom require varying levels of support. The artists work alongside instructors to create artworks which are developed into designer products.
Looking ahead to a time after lockdown, Carlee is hoping to run events in the shop, including talks by local writers. Planned workshops include beeswax wrap-making, flower arrangements, screen-printing, and calligraphy workshops.
Carlee, who comes from Australia, was in the Adjutants General Corps and finished her time attached to 5 Rifles. After an injury, she left the Army, but continues to work as a civil servant, at the Warminster Garrison. Her partner Matt is in the same corps, currently serving at Colerne where he is regimental administration officer. Her mother, who lives in Brisbane, is helping with the shop –making silk scrunchies, a useful accessory in lockdown when nobody can get their hair cut!
- Deepest Wiltshire is raising funds for Wiltshire Community Foundation, Wiltshire Air Ambulance and SSAFA Wiltshire. The authors, Fanny Charles and Gay Pirrie-Weir were delighted to be able to make an initial donation of £10,000 from the proceeds to the Community Foundation’s coronavirus emergency fund, when it was launched in March.
