The winners have been announced for the 2017 Observer Food Monthly Awards. The winners were announced at an event on Thursday the 12th October in London. Supporting the Awards and the ceremony was the headline sponsor, Marks & Spencer. The awards have reached their 14th year, and sees candidates voted for by readers as well as a judging panel.
The Observer Food Monthly Awards looks to recognise and celebrate the best producers, restaurants and retailers in operation in the UK. The Observer columnist, Jay Rayner, is well known for being a television personality and food writer co-hosted this year’s event with Nigella Lawson after the News and Media editor-in-chief for the Guardian, Katherine Viner, and Observer Food Monthly editor Allan Jenkins introduced the evening.
Joyce Molyneux was named as the winner of the coveted lifetime achievement award. Molyneux is known for being a hugely respected chef as well as being one of the first women in the UK to receive a Michelin star. Joyce Molyneux ran the Carved Angel restaurant, which is located in Devon, until she retired in 1999. The judge voted Young Chef of the Year Prize was awarded to Tom Adams, the chef and owner of the Pitt Cue, a rural retreat that has only recently opened located on Coombeshead Farm.
The readers of the Observed voted Rick Stein as the Best Food Personality of the Year, and that Pidgin in East London was the Best Restaurant. Pidgin is a bistro in East London that has been created by James Ramsden and Sam Herlihy. Meera Sodha’s Fresh India cookbook was named as the Best New Cookbook at the awards for her modern spin on a wide range of Indian cooking that is infused with a range of British influences.
The Awards have been a great celebration of the food and cooking industry and offered readers of the Observer to share their opinion by voting for the winners of a number of categories.
