The great, the good...and Hot Dinners were at the Observer Food Monthly Awards last night in London to celebrate the best food producers, chefs and restaurants in the country.
In addition to it walking away with The World's Best Goody Bag ™ guests were treated to lethal damson vesper cocktails by 69 Colebrooke Row's Tony Conigliaro and, as you'd expect, a rather fine selection of party food.
We bumped into recent Michelin winner Tom Kerridge who still seems slightly star-struck (see what we did there?). "I'm just so pleased for my team," he told us.
Here's who won:
- Lifetime achievement: Michel Roux Senior
- Best restaurant: Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
- Food personality: Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
- Best cookbook: Plenty, Ottolenghi
- Best place to drink: Mark's Bar, HIX, London
- Best producer: Johnny Pusztai at J. T. Beedhams & Sons, Nottingham
- Best newcomer: Maltby Street, London
- Outstanding contribution: Tristram Stuart, author of Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal
- Young chef of the year: Paul Foster, Head Chef, Tuddenham Mill, Suffolk
- Best Sunday lunch: Bull & Last, Kentish Town, London
- Best food blog: Eat Like A Girl
- Best ethical restaurant: The Ethicurean, North Somerset
- Best independent local retailer: The Cheese Shed, Bovey Tracey, Devon
- Best cheap eats: Koya, London
- Reader’s cocktail: Bittersweet Addiction by Simon Amster
- Reader’s recipe: Chicken and Pistachio Curry by Maria Kuehn
