Displaying items by tag: foodie awards

Put your vote where your mouth is.  Nominate the plates and places you love in the #OFMAwards.

The people who win prizes for writing about food.

This Saturdays media contribution to foodie enlightenment - featuring Pump Street bakery, and rather too many blogs from the US we think. But we do quite like A Girl Called Jack who has the cheapest tastiest recipes imagineable, proving that as long as you know how to cook, being on a low income doesn't mean you have to go to Iceland for everything.

Inspector X has been busy judging the entries for the Customer Service Award for the 2012 EADT Suffolk Food and Drink Awards. Tomorrow the winners will be announced at an Awards Ceremony to be held at Wherstead Park. Good luck to everyone who has been shortlisted - there are some real food and drink superstars out there.

Last night I was invited to the 'Farming Oscars', held by the Suffolk Agricultural Association at Trinity Park, on the outskirts of Ipswich. The awards are an amalgamation of the Suffolk Farm Business Competition, which is open to all farms in Suffolk, and the Best Alternative Land Enterprise (BALE) Awards, which celebrate the diversification of businesses in Suffolk, Essex, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire. Congratulations to runners up of the BALE Award - Jason and Katherine Salisbury from Creeting St Mary-based Suffolk Farmhouse Cheeses.  The couple annually produce 27 tonnes of cheese under three brands, Suffolk Gold, Suffolk Brie and Suffolk Blue. Also Simpers Deben Shellfish, run by the Simper family, who are reviving the native oyster in the Deben, scooped the Best Newcomer award.  Their oysters can be ordered online.

Suffolkfoodie was created by my sister Claire in 2007.  Although Claire has lived and worked in the UK, nowadays she spends most of her time in the Caribbean with her family. Not in a 'living on a luxury yacht' kind of way, but on her smallholding where she raises goats and cattle. Claire is a great cook, a published writer and has a life-threatening addiction to hot sauce and makes it in Barbuda.

This leaves me to look after SuffolkFoodie. My name is Ruth and I've worked in the food and hospitality industry since I was 19; now I'm a Nonna! I still have the passion for cooking and good food that I had in my youth. Whether I've made it myself or someone else has cooked it I like good home-made food. I'm not fussy about what I eat; give me a good stew or a burger from a street food stall and I'm happy. You can see my food stories and recipes here! For those that would like to know even more about me I moved from catering, service and hospitality to the tourism sector when I got weary working behind a hot stove. I currently work as a freelance quality assessor within visiitor attractions and the leisure and sports industries. (My eight years as a full time hotel inspector taking their toll on my waistline and leaving me craving to eat my own cooking and sleep in my own bed again.) In my years as a cook/chef I've owned and run my own restaurant in Bury St Edmunds and also had my own outside event catering businesses. I've worked as a lecturer at West Suffolk College teaching cookery and life skills to vulnerable adults as well as teaching adult education evening cookery classes. I understand the complexities of running a food led business and the energy that it takes to keep all the plates spinning (literally). I love to keep up with food trends and writing the odd blog post or two. My relaxation pursuits include growing pumpkins, discovering more about wine and experimenting with my cocktail trolley - as Jimmy Buffet sang ... it's five o'clock somewhere; pour me another one!