Tuesday 14 October 2014

Somerset Cheese: The Great Taste Awards

With all the doom and gloom surrounding the dairy industry at present it is nice to be able to report on a success story in the form of the Somerset Cheese Company which has recently won a Great Taste Award.

The Great Taste Awards which are organised by the Guild of Fine Food, is the acknowledged benchmark for speciality food and drink. It has been described as the ‘Oscars’ of the food world and the ‘epicurean equivalent of the Booker prize’. Quite simply the Great Taste logo is the sign you can trust when buying food and drink in your local, quality retailer.

Therefore it was a great honour, when Anita Robinson and business partner and fellow cheesemaker, Philip Rainbow attended the The Royal Garden Hotel, Kensington and won the “Woman and Home Great Taste VIP Award” for one of their cheeses, Pennard Ridge.

Jane Curren, Food Director for Woman & Home and Woman & Home Feel Good Food explained, “Somerset Cheese appeared in the May/June issue of Feel Good Food this year. We feature producers who have won stars at the Great Taste Awards. We are a media partner of Great Taste and every year we give an award. We select a shortlist of producers which we call VIPs, Very Important Producers. The shortlist then goes up on our website and our readers vote for their favourite. Somerset Cheese must have a lot of fans as they were the outright winners! It is very much part of our DNA at Woman & Home and Feel Good Food to promote smaller producers who are doing great things.”

The Somerset Cheese Company, based in Ditcheat, is a young company founded by long-term friends Philip Rainbow, and Nicholas and Anita Robinson. Philip has over 40 years experience in the craft of cheese making and his expertise is well renowned and respected. He has won awards in both national and international shows on a regular basis.

Philip and Anita worked together for many years before the Somerset Cheese Co. was formed, Philip was the head cheese maker for a renowned local dairy and Anita was his assistant.

Now they have combined their individual talents along with Anita’s husband Nick who brings a wealth of day to day business knowledge.

Using high quality milk that is sourced directly from the farm, and as local as possible, the Somerset Cheese Company specialises in adapting traditional style recipes to produce characterful, naturally rinded cheese from sheep, goat, buffalo and cows milk.

So why not try some of their excellent cheeses; I have and they are delicious. We even got the thumbs up from some hungry dairy farmers when we featured one of their cheeses on Carter Jonas’ stand at the Dairy Show which was held recently at the Bath and West Showground.
 

James Stephen MRICS FAAV
Partner
Rural Practice Chartered Surveyor, Wells

T: 01749 683381
E: james.stephen@carterjonas.co.uk

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