Yum Yum - Getting a taste of the country's eight most delicious foods
The Great Taste awards have been called the Oscars of the food industry, but where the Oscars focus on the big studios and increasingly reward politically correct films, there is nothing PC about the Great Taste awards - everything is assessed on its own merits.
As a judge at this year's awards, I found myself at Olympia in the company of Alex James, the pop star turned farmer, Matthew Drennan, the editor of Delicious magazine, and a host of other foodies, trying to select the supreme champion. Choosing the best item from a selection that included a stuffed olive, a square of organic chocolate, a dash of balsamic vinegar, a slice of bacon and a pot of coffee ice cream ought to have been impossible, but it was actually astonishingly easy. In the absence of packaging, price and all the other signifiers that you normally rely on to choose food, it was our taste buds that made the decision. Financial clout had nothing to do with it: we had no idea whether the winning choice had been rustled up by a huge conglomerate or by a little old lady in her farmhouse kitchen.
The Great Taste awards are simply about rewarding gastronomic excellence. So, unless the winner, clad in Valentino, sweeps on stage tomorrow to collect the prize and bursts into hysterical sobs, I can't see any connection at all.
AND THEY ARE ...
From the 4,500 foods originally tasted, these final eight were deemed the most delicious.
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Amondi biscuits from Honeybuns
An utterly moreish blend of almonds, orange zest, sugar and egg whites - gooey in the middle, crispy on the outside. Emma Goss-Custard started out making cakes in her Oxford student digs. She makes small batches, using impeccably sourced ingredients.
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Lydia Slater