The coveted Caterer Product Excellence Awards recognise and celebrate the very best food, drink and equipment products in the foodservice market. As such we are always keen to gain this solid-gold endorsement for our clients’ products and of course the acclaim it brings with it. To that end we spend a great deal of time in partnership with our clients identifying the products we feel are possible award winners and drafting that all important award entry. This year we had a record six products shortlisted for the awards, quite some achievement in itself, and as Lisa Jenkins took to the stage we were crossing our fingers along with all the other nominees.

Held at the fabulous In and Out Club, the awards covered 26 categories across both food & drink and equipment and as the wine flowed and the gathered crowd enjoyed a range of Spanish delights from Mevalco Foods there was an air of anticipation. Of course we knew that our clients had great products, but with such stiff competition across the selected finalists categories there is never any guarantee of a win. However, this year we couldn’t have been prouder to see an amazing four wins, one Highly Commended and a client in the shortlist for the Winner of Winners’ list!

Tipiak were joint winners of the dessert category with their Pop Macarons. Danish Crown won the hotly contested meat category with their Crown Gold Gammon (which was a big hit with chef Peter Bayless who prepared the food for the judging).The Real Soup Company won the snacking category with their already award winning Grab & Go Indonesian Chickpea and Coconut Soup and also made it into the shortlist of the Winner of Winners’ (those food and drink products with the highest scores from the judges). Hobart Cooking were joint winners of the prime cooking category with their Bonnet Precipan and Hobart Warewash received a Highly Commended for their Premax FTPi in the warewashing category. Sadly A Game to Train missed out on the technology software award, but received excellent feedback from the judges on their innovative gamification approach to training.

All in all it was a great night and congratulations must go not only to all the winners and finalists, but to Lisa Jenkins and the events team at Caterer, the guest judges who took time out to give their considered opinion and to the In and Out Club for hosting (and of course not to mention our fabulous PR team for what must have been some pretty impressive award submissions). As ever it was great to see so much innovation in the market we know and love and we look forward to next year’s awards which will be The Caterer’s 140th year and if you think you have a product that should be recognised as best in category in foodservice we’d love to help you walk away with an award in 2018 so please do get in touch. In the meantime if you want to see some of the winning products for yourself head to Hotelymia 2018 where they will be showcased on The Caterer’s stand. To see pictures and video from the evening and see the other winning products search #productexcellenceawards or follow @CatererTweets

Susan Wickes
Latest posts by Susan Wickes (see all)