Family run, Shipley based bakers and patissiers, Just Desserts, has won a prestigious Great Taste Award for its Pear and Almond Franzipan. The tart, part of a new downsized dessert range aimed at the foodservice and hospitality market, has picked up a 1 STAR Gold rating. The Great Taste Awards, organised by The Guild of Fine Food, is the UK’s most renowned food awards employing the country’s most rigorous judging system to ensure the fairest, accurate and trusted results.
The bakery, which produces traditionally handmade premium desserts for caterers has also recently introduced its individual tart range for the retail market, selling packaged products at Keelham Farm Shop in Thornton, Bradford.
Just Desserts unveiled the new tart range at a recent trade show’s ‘Feed the Dragon’ forum where speciality food producers pitch their products to top food buyers. The ‘dragons’ all gave a thumbs up to the range and Victoria Robertshaw, co-owner of Keelham Farm Shop invited the bakery to package them for retail and they flew off the shelves during a recent Yorkshire Week promotion.
Commenting on the award, James O’Dwyer, managing director, Just Desserts said: “To win a Great Taste Award for our Pear and Almond Franzipan tart is to speciality food what Michelin is to fine dining and is a proven fine food Oscar. We picked up a Gold last year for our traditional Landlord Fruitcake, so we are absolutely delighted to have been given this accolade again for another new product. I’m so proud of our bakery team, they are absolutely passionate about every product we produce and it shows in the finished result.
“This is an acknowledged benchmark for speciality food and drink and displaying the Great Taste Awards logo is the sign that customers are buying food they can trust and helps us to differentiate our product from the norm,” continued James O’Dwyer.
The 2013 Great Taste Awards attracted a record number of entries. In total 9,738 food and drink products were blind-tasted, tested and discussed during two months of intense judging by more than 300 judges, comprising fine food retailers, food writers, chefs, restaurant critics and industry experts. Of the 9,738 products entered, only 33.8 per cent were awarded a star.
The Guild of Fine Food recognises that the standards of food and drink in the British Isles are going from strength to strength, year after year, proving that for those who enjoy great food – it’s there to be discovered. The Guild has worked hard to ensure the judging process is as robust as possible. Judging teams are balanced in terms of experience, background and even gender and every Gold Award winning entry has been independently proven to be of the highest standard.