By The Artisan Kitchen, Aug 11 2014 08:16PM

The Artisan Kitchen wins food ‘Oscar’ at Great Taste Awards 2014

 

A Blaisdon Red Plum Jam produced by The Artisan Kitchen will now be able to boast a coveted 3-star label on its jars. This highly respected recognition of Great Taste 2014 has been awarded by a judging by a panel of 350 of the nation’s most discerning and respected food experts.

 

The Artisan Kitchen is a Gloucester based micro-preserve business founded by Sarah Churchill in 2011. Her expertise comes from a career in some of London’s best restaurants and as Lead Development Chef of the preserves kitchen at Daylesford Organic. The majority of her seasonal fruit is sourced and handpicked locally. This is especially true of the Blaisdon red plums – stars of her award winning jam. The variety is exclusive to Gloucestershire and plums are gathered by hand from an unsprayed, fifth generation heritage orchard in Frampton-on-Severn. There are very few Blaisdon orchards left in the county making this fruit packed preserve rare and extra special. This Artisan Kitchen Limited Edition is cooked in very small batches and produced traditionally, which means ‘fruit and sugar and nothing else added’ giving it a rich, deep red colour. Its taste is tangy and sweet; perfectly balanced. Sarah recommends the jam as “the perfect breakfast treat but equally delicious served with soft rind washed cheeses or a wonderful artisan Double Gloucester”.

Great Taste, organised by the Guild of Fine Food, is the acknowledged benchmark for speciality food and drink. It has been described as the ‘Oscars’ of the food world and the ‘epicurean equivalent of the Booker prize’. For Sarah, it is the ultimate recognition of her produce: “Artisan businesses are born out of love for what they do – passion before business. The most important thing to me is for the customer to enjoy and recommend my product, appreciating the effort and integrity that goes into every preserve I make. But as a business, an award such as this endorses my work and is a universal sign that The Artisan Kitchen is a name you can trust”

From over 10,000 entries just 153 have been chosen for a 3-star award this year. For 3-star Gold, every single judge attending the judging session, which can be as many as 30 experts, must unanimously agree the food delivers that indescribable ‘wow’ factor. So this is a real indication of the standard achieved by this little pot of jammy goodness.