The awards ceremony took place at the Royal College of Physicians in Regents Park last night (April 23) and was attended by 300 ‘free-from’ food enthusiasts.
One judge said of the overall winner: “A perfect pork pie! I just do not believe that it is both gluten-free and dairy-free! Just enough jelly. Perfect balance of meat & pastry. A classic!”
Voakes had been making award-winning pork pies from its own-farmed pigs for more than 40 years, according to the awards organisers.
Coeliac
But when Nick Voakes’s partner Laura McGowan was diagnosed as coeliac, the family focused their expertise on creating a gluten-free and wheat-free pork pie which would be indistinguishable from their classic standard pies. Their free-from pork pies are created in a dedicated gluten-free facility near their farm in Yorkshire.
Close runners up for the FAIR trophy for the best Free-From Food 2015 included Genius Gluten Free’s gluten- and dairy-free Pain au Chocolat, Explore Asian’s Edamame and Mung Bean Fettuccine and Amy’s Kitchen’s Gluten-free Chinese Noodles and Veggies.
‘Innovative’
“Yet again – an amazing range of innovative and really excellent products,” said Michelle Berriedale-Johnson, director of the awards. “It is very hard these days to tell a free-from food from a non-free-from food – just look at our winner tonight! No one would believe that it wasn’t just an excellent traditional pork pie!”
Antony Worrall Thompson, long-term patron of the awards, added: “Every year I am amazed how the free-from sector has grown – and how innovative the products continue to be. Edamame fettuccine, for goodness sake! An exciting option for any restaurateur but with the added bonus of being gluten-free!”
Other award winners
- Innovation award: Kirsty’s gluten-free and dairy-free beef lasagne with a rich bolognese sauce
- Retailer of the year: Tesco
- Breakfast foods: Genius’s pain au chocolat and Primal Joy Foods’s maple & pecan nut crunch were joint winners
- Bread: joint winners: Smart Eats & Treats’s rosemary and olive oil focacette and Tesco’s free-from fresh seeded bread
- Store cupboard: joint winners: Fria’s Swedish style puff pastry, Quinola Mothergrain’s express quinoa with split peas
- Pasta and pizza: joint winners: Explore Asian’s Edamame & Mung Bean Fettuccine, Rizopia’s organic brown rice spaghetti
- Raw foods and superfoods: Marvellous Superfood’s super protein
- Food-to-go and vending: Voakes’s free-from traditional pork pie
- Down the pub and bar: joint winners: Stringer’s Beer’s Outlook Amber Ale, Tesco’s savoury party pack selection
- Meaty and fishy ready meals: Tesco’s free-from smoked haddock fish cakes with a melting middle
- Veggie ready meals: Amy Kitchen’s gluten-free Chinese noodles & veggies
- Foods suitable for nut and peanut allergics: Ilumi’s chicken za’tar
- Children’s food: Georgia’s Choice’s chicken grills
- Tea time: joint winners: Feel Free’s gluten-free donuts, The Free From Bakehouse’s rosemary and raisin cookies
- Desserts and puddings: joint winners: The Coconut Collaborative’s dairy-free mango & passion fruit coconut milk yogurt, Glamour Puds’s raspberry bakewell tart
- Confectionery and chocolate: joint winners: Doisy & Dam’s maca, vanilla & cacao nibs, Kinnerton Confectionery’s dairy-free hollow Santa
- Bars: Get Fruity’s moist mixed berry bar