At Walter Smith Fine Foods we’ve won numerous awards in our long history as butchers detailed below are some of the awards we’ve won
Battle of the Butchers 2024 at the Great Yorkshire Show
Last week was a lot of hard work and planning, but we pulled off a display that we feel 100% represented Walter Smith at its finest, the compliments and encouragement from the judges and people within the audience was overwhelming.
I’m so proud to have been able to stand side by side with Ash and show people the quality of Walter Smith.
Thank you to everyone because the final displays really was a combination of ideas, products and skills we have learnt from everyone single one of you from over the years
2 very happy butchers”
James
The Great Taste Awards
At the Great Taste Awards 2007 Walter Smith took the ultimate Supreme Champion award for its Free Range Pork Pie (see image below). The Great Taste Awards is organised by the Guild of Fine Foods and is the acknowledged benchmark for speciality food and drink in the UK. It has been described as the ‘Oscars’ of the food world. Which means that food or drink displaying the GTA logo is a sign of trust for the buyer, indicative of a quality retailer.
The pork pie continues to rise in fame extending throughout the UK and has received numerous press releases and taste challenges conducted by 3rd parties. For example, a recent Sunday Times article, Lucas Hollweg (food critic) lists Walter Smith as one of his favourite food suppliers and mentioned in particular the Pork Pie, stating “it is everything you want a pork pie to be.”
To highlight the significance of a Supreme Champion award, over 4,500 products are blind tasted and tested by a panel consisting of a minimum of 12 experts and products are awarded either a 1 star, 2 star or 3 star awards. More than 25 judges have to agree on a product for a 3 star gold. Then all the 3 star award winning products are taken to the top table and placed in to categories for a second round of judging and Champion awards are given to the best product in each category.
The Supreme Champion award is the final ultimate award for best overall product of the year out of all the 3 Star products. A Supreme Champion award is a significant achievement for any provider in the Fine Foods industry.
The Smithfield Awards
We have been winning Q-Guild awards for many years now. Q-Guild represents the highest quality butchers and independent meat retailers in the UK and are classed as leading experts in their field. Our most recent success was at the annual Smithfield Awards held in Nov 2012. This prestigious award ceremony, hosted by broadcaster and food critic Jay Rayner, is a national product award evaluation which is among the most coveted in the meat industry.
In 2013 Walter Smith took away 17 Gold Awards for the following products:
- Home Made Corned Beef
- Free Range Dry Cured Smoked Bacon
- Free Range Pork and Pickle Pie
- Free Range Back and Black
- Whittington Whirl Sausages
- Pork and Apple Pudding Sausages
- Hand Made Chicken Pie
- Free Range Pork Pie and Free Range Pork
- Turkey and Stuffing Pie
- Old Knowle Sausages
- Free Range Pork & Cheese Sausages
- Warwickshire Whirl
- Dry Cured Free Range Short Back Bacon
- Dry Cured Black Bacon
- All Steak Pie
- Shepherd’s Pie
- Free Range Pork & Stilton Pie
