Photo credit – The Guild of Fine Food, Richard Faulks
Two Welsh winners have been crowned at the Great Taste Golden Forks 2024.
At an awards ceremony that took place in London’s Battersea Arts Centre, the very best of the food and drink world celebrated in the grand finale of the Guild of Fine Food’s Great Taste awards scheme.
The Golden Fork was hotly contested with Smoked Duck Breast from Black Mountains Smokery, Dà Mhìle Absinthe from Dà Mhìle Distillery in Ceredigion and Chorizo from Moch Coch in Carmarthen all making it through to the final round, with the trophy awarded to Black Mountains Smokery for their lightly cured, smoked Gressingham duck breast.
The judges thought that this duck breast was “Absolutely incredible, such a good example of smoking, neither too acidic nor overpowering which meant you could really taste the meat. The cure was exceptional and created a really lovely, velvet melt-in-the-mouth texture. All in all it was incredibly well judged and an incredibly well made product”.
The Nigel Barden Heritage Award also went to Wales, with Dà Mhìle Distillery celebrated for their Absinthe.
There were 16 Great Taste Golden Forks presented at this year’s awards, with two new trophies for Sustainability and Better Business joining the line up.
Photo credit – The Guild of Fine Food, Richard Faulks
The 16 Golden Fork winners were the standout products from nearly 14,000 to enter this year’s Great Taste awards.
John Farrand, managing director of the Guild of Fine Food, said:
“It is important to understand that Great Taste is merely the process that identifies 1-, 2- and 3-star winners and, in doing so, encourages makers to improve. Now at its climax, in announcing the Golden Forks we are celebrating the very best producers; those who take care to ensure their products hit the markers of trusted raw ingredients, simple production methods, and food & drink that has personality, but ultimately, that tastes great.
“We’re particularly chuffed to be doing our thing for international trade and relations by welcoming entries from 115 countries this year and, in addition, bestowing two new awards, one to a company that demonstrates inspiring business acumen, and the other to an organisation showing genuine commitment to sustainability. These winners must at the same time, be making outstanding food & drink.”
Great Taste is recognised across the globe as a stamp of excellence. Sought out by both food lovers and retailers, it is the world’s most trusted food and drink accreditation scheme and values taste above all else. Each year a panel of 500 industry experts judge a maximum of 14,000 products over 90 days to unveil the tastiest food from across the globe. All products are anonymised before entering a robust, layered blind-judging process. 2024 saw 13,672 products entered from 115 countries. A total of 3,938 (28.8%) of entrants won 1-star, 1,386 (10.1%) won 2-star and 266 (1.9%) won 3-star awards.
