HONOURS have been dished out to the best food and drink businesses in North Yorkshire.
Businesses from across Richmondshire, Hambleton, Harrogate and Ryedale districts gathered at the Flavours of Herriot Country Awards.
The food and drink awards, held at the Garden Rooms at Tennants of Leyburn, celebrate the area’s hospitality industry with honours presented to hotels, pubs, cafes and food and drink producers and retailers.
A special one-off award was presented by Rishi Sunak MP to the George and Dragon community pub at Hudswell, near Richmond.
The pub was closed for two years until the local community formed a trust to purchase and reopen it. The pub now includes a Post Office, village shop, library, community allotments and free internet access. This year it was named CAMRA’s Yorkshire Pub of the Year and is in the running for UK pub of the year..
Landlord Stuart Miller, who runs the pub with his father Keith and brother Sam, said: “The pub really is the centre of the village and is very friendly. Everyone who comes to the pub ends up chatting to everyone else in the pub. It’s fantastic to get this award. We really weren’t expecting it.”
Mr Sunak said: The George and Dragon is a wonderful community initiative. Villagers refused to let their local pub, their community hub, die and they have turned it into Yorkshire’s best pub.”
The judging panel was chaired by Elaine Lemm, a Yorkshire-born former chef- restaurateur turned national food writer and contributor to the Yorkshire Post. She led a panel of other food writers and food industry experts.
Award winners included Yorebridge House Hotel at Bainbridge in Wensleydale for best customer service, and Roots Farm Shop at East Rounton, near Northallerton, which two awards, for best butcher and best village shop.
Black Sheep Brewery won the locally-produced beer of the year award and best attraction catering honour for its cafe/restaurant. Mocha in Richmond was best specialist retailer and The Coach House at Middleton Tyas won the Restaurant of the Year category.
This year saw an new category, The James Herriot Award, for The Best Yorkshire Pudding Served with a Sunday Roast, to mark the 100th anniversary of James Herriot author Alf Wight.
It was won by the Horseshoe Inn at West Rounton, where the judges concluded the Yorkshire Puddings were exceptional, adding “not only were they the tallest, they were delicious and came alongside an excellent, traditional Sunday lunch."
Jim Wight, Alf Wight’s son, said after the awards: “It’s very appropriate because he did love Yorkshire Puddings. He was born in Glasgow and was used to Scottish food and when he came to Yorkshire he discovered a different diet down here and was often served Yorkshire Puddings when he stopped at farms for lunch.
“He would have approved of this award.”
Other winners included the Josh Murray, a chef at The George at Wath, who was named Young Professional Chef of the Year. The George also had Charlotte Crosser shortlisted in this category.
Local Product of the Year was Woundales’ Dexter Beef, from Woundales Farm at Knayton, near Thirsk, which the judges selected for the quality of the meat and the commitment to the welfare of the animals.
Mr Sunak was keynote speaker at the event.
He paid tribute to the growing international reputation Yorkshire had for its countryside, hotels, B&Bs and pubs, which enabled the county to now attract twice as many annual visitors as the Eiffel Tower. He told the audience that Yorkshire now boasts more Michelin starred restaurants than any other English county outside London and had more than Greece and Norway.
He said: “More than ever before, Britain is a food superpower, with one in eight Britons are employed in the food industry, making an economic contribution of over £100bn every year.
"We now famously export cheese to the French, wine to the Italians and chicken tikka to the Indians and as the UK undergoes a culinary renaissance, there is no doubt that Yorkshire is its Da Vinci.”