After much anticipation, excitement and a certain amount of nerves, the winners of the seven categories in the Carlsberg UK Northamptonshire Food and Drink Awards 2010/11 are finally celebrating being named the best of the county’s best!

The Awards, devised by Northamptonshire Enterprise Limited, were designed to celebrate all that is great about the county’s produce and drink, to recognise excellence within its dining venues and to reward those who work so hard within the culinary sector.

The results were announced at a glittering Awards Dinner (Weds 6th October) staged in the magnificent Elizabethan rooms of Holdenby House.

The winners and runners-up are:

Best Local Product:
Runner-up Original Brixworth Pâté by Brixworth Foods
Winner Chocolate Surprise Cupcake from Angelina Cupcake, Towcester

Best Local Drink:
Runner-up Champs D’Amour by Fleur Fields Vineyard, Brixworth
Winner Solstice Stout from Hoggleys Brewery, Litchborough

Curry Chef of the Year:
Runner-up Baldev Singh,of Mem-Saab, Northampton
Winner Hao Dang, of Dang’s Vietnamese Restaurant, Northampton

Community Pub of the Year:
Runner-up The Picturedrome, Northampton
Winner The Lamplighter, Northampton

Pub or Bar Restaurant of the Year:
Runner-up The Red Lion, Sibbertoft
Winner The Olde Red Lion, Kislingbury

Restaurant of the Year:
Runner-up Equilibrium at Fawsley Hall, Fawsley
Winner Oundle Mill, Oundle

Local Food Hero of the Year:
Winner Mrs Sheena Harris, Moulton
Winner Beckworth Emporium, Mears Ashby
Winner The Green Patch, Kettering
Winner Limes Farm, Farthinghoe

Julie Elliott of Angelina Cupcake, winner of the Best Local Product for her Surprise Chocolate Cupcake, was absolutely amazed at the announcement. “I only started the company just over a year ago after my twin boys started at school. Before that I’d just been baking for friends and family and it’s grown from there. So to have come up against some long established firms with some fantastic products and win is really overwhelming.”

Meanwhile for Julie Hogg of Hoggleys Brewery, winning the ‘Best Local Drink’ title for their Solstice Stout was all the more sweet because they’d come so close last year. “We were runners-up in 2009 for our Northamptonshire Bitter and really wanted this Award! We’re really proud of our beer and it’s wonderful to think that its quality is being so widely recognised.”

And for Ian Dorwood of Limes Farm, his wife’s reaction on the firm being named as a Local Food Hero said it all “Nicky had tears in her eyes as we walked up to fetch our trophy! That’s because our family business means everything to us and winning this award is wonderful recognition for our efforts. Sometimes it can get a bit demoralising, grinding on day by day but knowing that we’re appreciated by our customers makes it all worthwhile!”

The trophies – a beautifully handcrafted map of the county created from Northamptonshire leather by craftswoman Kate Lee from Northampton – were presented by celebrated Michelin-starred chef Jason Atherton, the star of such TV shows as ‘Saturday Kitchen’ and ‘Great British Menu’. He spoke highly of the winners and also praised all those who had been short-listed; “20 years ago, when I was a lad learning my trade, we weren’t so bothered by the idea of ‘local’ but now the industry has come to realise the importance of sourcing good, fresh ingredients from on the doorstep. Clearly your pubs and restaurants are doing that and thankfully there are the producers and suppliers to meet the demand! I’m really impressed by what Northamptonshire has to offer and I think these Awards are a wonderful way of celebrating all that’s being achieved.”

As a perfect demonstration of that, former Northampton College student and now Executive Chef at Gary Rhodes’ Michelin-starred restaurant Rhodes Twenty Four, Adam Gray, prepared a mouth-watering Northamptonshire menu for the 140 entrants, judges, sponsors, media partners and supporters who attended, including judge Sophie Grigson and Holdenby House’s gracious owner James Lowther. They were treated to a smoked beetroot and goats cheese starter drizzled with a Northamptonshire red-wine dressing, local venison and an apple mousse with cider-glazed apples, the red wine and cider both coming from short-listed entrant Welland Valley Vineyard.

Said the competition’s co-ordinator, Rachel Mallows of Rachel Mallows Services to Business “We set a pretty high standard when we launched the competition last year, yet thanks to Carlsberg UK and our other sponsors, our partners in the Awards and most of all the hundreds that took part, this year has been even better. I hope that it encourages Northamptonshire’s foodies to get out and support the excellence that’s on their doorstep.”