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Alverton Manor Hotel, Tregolls Road, Truro is celebrating after winning a prestigious Great Taste Award. Alverton Manor has been presented with a much-desired two star Gold Great Taste Award for its Clear Chunk Honey, made from the hotel’s resident bee hives.
The Great Taste Awards, which is organised by the Guild of Fine Food and often referred to as the Oscars of the food industry, is this year celebrating its 15th anniversary. A Great Taste Award is the authoritative, independent standard for Britain’s fine food sector: more and more consumers recognise the gold & black logo as the benchmark for independently proven fine food. However, winning a coveted Great Taste Award is much more than recognition for excellence; it is one of the most powerful tools to help grow business in the speciality food sector.
The Great Taste Awards judging standards, devised by the Guild of Fine Food, are the most rigorous in the UK. Every entry is blind tasted by teams of experts. By the time it earns gold, it will have been assessed by at least three different teams. All the judges’ comments are made available to producers. If no gold is awarded, they need to know how and why. This year’s judges include Alex James, farmer, journalist and bass player with Blur, Mark Hix, the chef’s chef, Charles Campion from Evening Standard & The Independent, Tom Parker-Bowles of UKTV Food’s Market Kitchen and national food journalist Fiona Sims.
Bob Farrand of the Guild of Fine Food, said: “These awards have been running for 15 years now and are a recognised mark of excellence that consumers can trust and rely on.
“The winning products have been through a thorough judging process and we are able to assure consumers that the Great Taste Award logo, which all award winners can use, signifies genuine, proven fine food. It’s not just a supermarket premium marketing slogan that bears almost no relation to the quality of the food in the packet.
“The Great Taste Awards reflect what is happening in the fine food halls, delicatessens and farm shops throughout the UK and during judging we tasted some fantastic gourmet delicacies from all over the world.”
Rodger D Dewhurst, Gwenen Apiaries c/o Alverton Manor
“As we are a small operation we can only produce limited amounts of product and this is all subject to the bees and weather. For information our typical production per annum is around 1000kg of honey from all our hives. Most of this is sold through specialist retail outlets, farmers markets and events and of course establishments like the Alverton and Trevarno Estate Gardens where honey sold is produced on site subject to yields.”
“I am so pleased that the judges recognized the effort the bees have made to make the product originally for themselves of course! but with a bit of redirection by us so the guests at the Alverton can have another memory of their stay”.
Richard Harrison, Operations Manager, Alverton Manor Hotel:
“We are delighted with this award. Winning a Great Taste Award recognizes the craft and dedication that goes into making superb food and drink and we are very grateful to Rodger for caring for our bees here at the Alverton.
Food critic Charles Campion comments “This competition has really come of age, and year by year the standard of entries gets higher and higher. To win a gold at the Great Taste Awards is a terrific achievement.”
The judging process
Judging this year took place over several weeks in May and June in London, Hampshire and at the Guild headquarters in Wincanton. Irish entries were judged over three days in Belfast in May. No awards were confirmed at this stage, the judges simply decided which products should go through to the next round. The suppliers of potential Gold Award winners were contacted for more information about provenance of key ingredients, product availability and so on.
These entries were judged a second time early in July at the Pillar Hall at London’s Olympia by 29 teams of experts before Gold award were confirmed along with the coveted one, two or three star status. All foods confirmed as achieving three star gold went forward to the final round in Wincanton on 19th July when a team of 12 leading chefs, food writers and retailers decided the regional and national winners along with the Supreme Champion 2008. These results remain a closely guarded secret until they are announced at a glittering awards ceremony at Kensington’s Royal Garden Hotel.
Testimonials for the Great Taste Awards:
‘The GTA represent the gold standard of British food production. They are a sign of the highest quality, where taste is more important than the quick buck.'
Tom Parker Bowles
‘It’s no longer a food trade issue. The British public now demand proven standards. We are giving it!’
Bob Farrand
'The Great Taste Awards is the best benchmark of quality in food today - look for their stamp when you shop'
Matthew Drennan, Editor, Delicious Magazine
The Great Taste Awards Press Office:
Sarah Lewis (sarahl@completemediagroup.co.uk)
Gemma Massey (gemma@completemediagroup.co.uk)
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7420 3550
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A restaurant manager with a passion for architecture and stonework believes he has found a 145-year old piece of graffiti at a Truro hotel.
Peter O’Fallanhaim, who manages the restaurant at Alverton Manor on Tregolls Road, found the message hidden on the building’s outer wall during a break.
Etched into a stone to the left of the hotel’s front door is ‘W N T 1862’.
After carrying out further research Peter believes the initials stand for William Nathanial Tweedy, son of Robert Tweedy who lived at the Alverton Manor and who ran the Tweedy & Williams Bank in Boscowan Street.
“I’m very interested in architecture and stonework, so I am lucky to work at such an amazing building, like the Alverton,” said Peter.
“During my breaks I like to look round the exterior to see if I can find anything different or interesting, so it was really exciting when I found the initials and the date etched into the wall near the original front entrance.
“Since then the front entrance has been extended meaning that no one goes past the inscription so I would think that is why it has remained hidden.”
After researching the Tweedy family further Peter discovered that William worked at the bank with his father and brother, Charles, around 1878.
“This means that at the time he inscribed his initials on the building he would have been around six years old,” said Peter.
“When he was at the bank he lived at 94 Pydar Street, while his brother lived in Falmouth and his sister, who we are unable to find a name for, lived at Truro Vean.”
In 1879 the family’s involvement with the Alverton came to an end after a crash in the tin market left the bank insolvent.
“We have been hoping to renew our links with the Tweedy family after we received a letter from a descendant of William offering to loan us three family portraits of Robert, Charles and Robert’s father, another William,” said Alverton’s general manager, Richard Harrison.
“Unfortunately the insurance company were unable to cover their value so we had to decline the offer of reuniting the Tweedys and Alverton.”
For more information please contact Richard Harrison on 01872 276633 or visit www.alvertonmanor.co.uk.
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A Truro Hotel Manager is once again able to harvest honey thanks to the West Briton.
The bees of Alverton Manor had taken a disliking to Richard Harrison, General Manager and attacked him relentlessly whenever he approached them.
"I've kept bees before at home and always been able to harvest honey" he said.
Suspecting that a change in the shower gel that he used may have confused the insects, Mr Harrison contacted the newspaper for help. Fifteen readers called offering assistance, including Rodger Dewhurst, head of bee keeping at Duchy College, Rosearne, who took the problem to hand.
"Bees can be affected by the slightest changes" said Mr Dewhurst, a beekeeper of 35 years, "Richards new shower gel may have made them feel uneasy, the smells can confuse them and make them feel as if they are under threat"
With Mr Dewhurst's help, Mr Harrison has been able to harvest 40lb of honey for his guests. Now there are plans to introduce three new colonies to Alverton, as well as replacing the exisiting queen with a milder temperament.
Mr Dewhurst is happy to see more support for beekeeping in Cornwall as native honey bees are in danger of dying out. "The bees are under threat from the parasite mite, 'varroa' " he explained. "It is having a devastating impact on numbers, so I am working hard to breed bees that can use thier own defences to fight it off".
He said the colonies at the Alverton Manor would help provide a reservoir of native bees to beat the mite, as well as pollinating flowers all over Truro.
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