 | Press ReleasesEx-Navy chef & octogenarian cheesemaker make it to finals of Radio 4 Food & Farming Awards |
An ex-Navy chef turned dinner 'laddie', a venison farmer and an octogenarian who started making cheese when she'd turned 60 are on the shortlist for the BBC Radio 4 Food & Farming Awards 2006. Previous winners include Jeanette Orrey, the dinner lady who inspired Jamie Oliver's school meals campaign; Al Crisci, the prison chef who encourages inmates to get qualifications; and Mike 'Kipperman' Smyllie, passionate promoter of the traditional British Herring. This year's finalists will be featured on Radio 4's The Food Programme and Farming Today as well as on BBC Local Radio. Created in 2000 to celebrate the people and organisations who produce and promote the best of British food, the awards, in partnership with BBC Local Radio, aim to find the Best Food Producer, Best Take-Away and the Farmer of The Year. The other awards are: the Best Dinner Lady, Best Local Food Retailer, Best Regional/National Retail Initiative, BBC Food Personality of the Year and The Derek Cooper Special Award. The BBC Radio 4 Food and Farming Awards 2006 will take place on Friday 24 November at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Chamberlain Square, Birmingham. The chair of this year's judging panel is the cook and food writer Nigel Slater. Nigel says of this year's awards: "As Chair of the Judges it has been a great privilege to have this opportunity to celebrate some of the many hundreds of people nominated for this year's Food and Farming Awards. "These are an amazingly diverse group of people - farmers, dinner ladies, retailers and cooks - working across the UK to make good quality, delicious food available to us all. This is our chance to celebrate their achievements." The nominees for this year's awards are: Best Food Producer  Diana Smart, cheesemaker - Gloucester
Robin and June Small, orchard owners - Taunton, Somerset
Fletchers of Auchtermuchty, venison farmers - Fife
Iain Spink, producer of smoked haddock - Arboath, Angus
Best Dinner Lady/Laddie Gerard 'Trigger' Rogers, Chef Manager - St Luke's School, Southsea
John Tempest, The Bradford Soup Run - Bradford, Yorkshire Melissa Plowden-Roberts and Mandy Harris - Milton Road Primary School, Cambridge Best Take-away Loe Beach Café - Feock, Cornwall
Matchbox Café - Highgate, Birmingham
i-eat-t - Acomb, York Best Local Food Retailer Tully's of Rothbury - Northumberland
Latimers Shellfish Deli - Whitburn, Tyne & Wear
The Chadwick Family's Emporium of Fine Foods - Wigan, Lancs
Northern Harvest - Warrington, Lancs Best Regional/National Retail Initiative Booths
Marks & Spencer Waitrose The Farming Today Award for Farmer of the Year The Kelly Family - Kelly Turkeys, Danbury, Essex
Laurence Harris - Dairy farmer and co-founder of Trioni, Boncath, Pembrokeshire
David and Wilma Finlay - Dairy farmers and ice-cream makers, Rainton, Dumfries and Galloway The Derek Cooper Special Award for Best Food Campaigner/Educator Greenpeace
The Caroline Walker Trust
Rt Hon Michael Meacher MP BBC Food Personality of the Year Won last year by the ever popular Jamie Oliver, this award is decided by listeners' votes and will be revealed on the night. The awards ceremony, hosted by Sheila Dillon, will feature in a special edition of Radio 4's The Food Programme on Sunday 26 November at 12.30pm, repeated on Monday 27 November at 4.00pm. Notes to Editors The Food Programme is on BBC Radio 4 every Sunday at 12.30pm and repeated on Mondays at 4.00pm. Farming Today is on BBC Radio 4 every weekday at 5.45am and on Saturdays at 6.35am. You can listen again online at bbc.co.uk/radio4. The finalists in the Farmer of the Year category will be featured on Farming Today in the week of the awards ceremony.
This year's judging panel is: Robert Clark, retail analyst; Sheila Dillon, presenter of The Food Programme; Professor Martin Wiseman; Roopa Gulati, chef, writer and broadcaster; Dr Martin Caraher from the Centre for Food Policy at City University; and Elinor Goodman. EH | 
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