Event of the year so far… The Free From Food Awards 2018

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Well, Rory and I had a very, very exciting time when we got to go to the Free From Food Awards 2018 in London a couple of weeks ago. As you probably know, (NOTE FROM RORY: Because she won’t stop talking about it) I was a judge for the puddings and desserts category, which was an amazing honour and extremely enjoyable (20 puddings in 2 hours: My time judging at the Free From Food Awards).

We thought we had spent the train journey productively by researching everyone who was going and thinking about who we wanted to meet and also which brands we wanted to win. We didn’t however consider how much it drained our phones and despite charging mine on the train, it was on 1% upon entering the awards ceremony. Epic fail from a social media and photograph point of view (sorry Michelle and Cressida). So there were no tweets or videos from us all night. Ah well, it allowed us to just enjoy the party and chat to everyone.

Rory did also manage to photobomb Glutarama’s vlog before we entered the building – only 2 seconds after asking me to have a photobomb competition. You’ll be pleased to know that I was also successful, so the final score was one all.

After both speaking to the lovely Benjamin from Forever Free From and Ruth from What Allergy?, we realised that our plan of splitting up to network was not going very well. So we gave ourselves a talking to and got more involved. There were no issues with finding each other at any point as we both have volume control issues (and probably talk too much) so we just had to listen for a few seconds and we managed to find each other in no time.

I’ve got to give Wildcraft Bakery a special mention. Mina and Samantha are such amazing ladies so it was brill to meet them properly. They are literally just down the road from Rory and me in Leeds, and we’ve been promised gluten and dairy-free doughnuts so it won’t be long before we pay them a visit. Good luck with the rest of your pregnancy, Mina.

And now to the winners. I have not listed all of the categories, or the silver and bronze winners, as there are just so many, but I have listed the special awards and our favourite categories.

SPECIAL AWARDS:

Winner of the FAIR trophy for the Best FreeFrom Food 2018: Orgran Vegan Easy Egg. Judges were very impressed that it could be used in omelettes and looks so ‘egg-like’.

Innovation award: Gold winners: 1. The Progressive Food Company Individual Long Life 12g Soya Milk Portions gold. I didn’t know about these before, but I will definitely be stocking up as it is great to have a single portion for a cuppa when you are out and about. 2. Ugo Thrive Pumpkin & Sage Raviolini – I loved this, amazing gf pasta and so good that it is also df.- Retailer of the year: Tesco won this for achieving a fantastic 4 gold awards, 8 silver, 7 bronze and 30 shortlistings. I love Tesco products and I buy most of my free-from products there. (NOTE FROM RORY: I completely disagree with this as every free-from product seems to have one of my allergies in, but I will be taking this up with Tesco’s directly)

Best product by a start up: Wildcraft Bakery Buckwheat Sourdough Loaf Gold – from what everyone was telling me, this was very well deserved and the sourdough apparently actually tastes like sourdough. Can’t wait to try it.

– Free From Hero 2018: Jacqueline McPeake, Catering Manager, Manchester Metropolitan University, who we briefly met and seemed so honoured to get the award she so obviously deserved.

PUDDINGS AND DESSERTS:

– Gold winners: Booja Booja Chocolate Salted Caramel and Tesco Free From Chocolate Eclairs – have I mentioned that I was on the judging panel? The ice cream is divine (although not Rory friendly) and it was just so amazing to have a chocolate éclair again after about 6 years.

BREADS:

– Gold winners: Wildcraft Bakery Buckwheat Sourdough Loaf and Asda seeded brown rolls. Again, we were so pleased that Wildcraft won this award. I’ll be picking up some Asda free-from rolls for my next barbecue too.

MILK ALTERNATIVES:

– Gold winners: Asda Free From Mature Cheddar Alternative, Bute Island Dairy Free Grated Mild Cheddar Style, Tesco Lactose Free Mascarpone, Vitalite Dairy Free Spread. Vitalite is my go-to spread, but I haven’t even tried the other products. I will be buying them as soon as I can.

NO TOP 14:

– Gold winners: Gosh! Sweetcorn & Quinoa Bites with a hint of Harissa & Paprika, My Gammies Mixed Cupcakes, Orgran Vegan Easy Egg. What an amazing achievement for these products. Being free of the top 14 allergens is no easy feat.

DOWN THE PUB AND THE BAR:

– Gold winners: Autumn Brewing ALT BREW NO03 Dark Roast Stout, Daura Marzen Double Malted Beer, Magic Rock Brewing Fantasma IPA can. Unfortunately even though they are gluten free I still just don’t like beer, so Rory got stuck into pretty much every beer and said that he genuinely wouldn’t be able to tell they were not full of gluten, so congratulations to everyone.

CONFECTIONARY AND CHOCOLATE:

– Gold winners: Booja Booja Hazelnut Crunch Truffles. They are one of Karen’s favourites, but Rory has a bee in his bonnet about nuts being in so many free-from products

For full details, see the Free From Food Awards website.

There were free-from canapes on offer throughout the night and even Rory could eat most of them (he is allergic to many, many things). There was also a buffet with all of the winning products – it was fab to try things I often can’t eat. But a few products were still off limits as milk and gluten can be a tricky combination. All was well however as there was milk-free wine and a lovely waiter who kept my glass continuously full and even made special trips to bring Rory GF beer.

It was great to catch up with Cressida, Michelle and my fellow judge, Sarah, and meet lots of wonderful people who are really striving to improve the free-from world for tricky eaters including Glutarama, Becky Excell, Forever Free From, Planet Organic, Allergy Adventures, Wildcraft Bakery, Willow Cottage Kitchen and Mahi Fine Foods, Grass Roots Bakery and the Autumn Brewing Company. Rory also had some constructive chats with Community Foods and Wholefoods.

It is fantastic to meet people properly when you have been communicating on social media for a while and to put faces to the name of brands, but most importantly to hear people’s stories.

 

We may have led people astray (they didn’t need much persuading) by continuing the party in a pub down the road. But what better way to finish a fantastic evening than by finding Johnny Vegas, unfortunately though, even he didn’t know where to go to continue the party. We already can’t wait for the 2019 awards. Thank goodness we’ve got the Free From Eating Out Awards to look forward to later this year.

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