Cranstons in Penrith scoops top honour at national craft butchery award, they scooped the top honour at this year’s Smithfield Awards, announced at Butchers’ Hall in London last week.
Cranston’s Topside and Cheddar Burger won the Platinum Smithfield Award and was crowned best of the best at the awards organised annually by the Q Guild of Butchers and widely recognised as the meat trade’s most high profile and challenging product evaluation.
The Smithfield Awards have run for more than 30 years and recognise and reward the UK’s finest craft butchery products including sausages, bacon, burgers, steak, game products, BBQ products and more.
Products are awarded a Bronze, Silver or Gold award by a panel of independent industry judges, with all Gold products in each category then pitched against each for the category champion Diamond Award.
The prestigious Smithfield Platinum Award 2024 and overall winner is chosen from a shortlist of Diamond Award winners and this year was judged on the morning of the awards by renowned Irish butcher Pat Whelan.
Pat described Cranston’s burger as ‘inspiring’ and said: “The most interesting thing is that it’s made with topside of beef, and you’re not expecting it. It’s a great example of sustainability by using whole carcass butchery and elevating different cuts to make them relevant. It’s inspiring in its own way and is an unbelievable result from using topside of beef. It’s a product that will appeal to a lot of people - for me, it’s a stand-out product.”
In addition to presenting Cranston’s with their Smithfield Platinum award, Pat Whelan also took part in an “In Conversation with…” style interview which had the entire audience spellbound as he shared his knowledge, experience and vision for James Whelan butchers to become a legacy brand. This led to a final Q&A session leaving members truly inspired with numerous anecdotes and pointers to take back to their respective businesses.
The Cumbrian butcher’s Best Smoked Streaky Bacon was also awarded Gold status at the awards, while its Spicy Lamb King Kebab and Cumberland Sausage with Mr Vikki’s Mango Chutney were awarded Silver.
Gordon Wallace, Q Guild Manager said: “The Smithfield Awards serve as a platform to recognise the very best in UK craft butchery, helping to elevate standards and inspire product innovation. They are the meat trade’s foremost and most rigorous product evaluation and achieving a Smithfield award is a fantastic endorsement.
“The Smithfield Platinum Award is our highest accolade and is praise indeed for a product which demonstrated both innovation and exceptional flavour. This product is exactly what our awards seeks to recognise. Winning this award, alongside additional Gold and Silver awards is an outstanding achievement for Cranston’s.”
Winner of the Smithfield Platinum Award, Peter Potts, Retail Area Manager at Cranstons said: “It’s fantastic to win with our Topside and Cheddar Burger – it’s one of our hero products as we go through the summer and it’s one of the products our customers really love. It started out as a summer only product and due to its popularity we now sell it all year round. It’s great to be recognised in an award ceremony like this. We know it’s a massive achievement to win in a category but to also win the Platinum award is just fantastic. It’s great for the teams that make it and the teams that serve it. It’s not a complicated product but the simplicity of it speaks volumes. We use good cheddar, a good local chutney and beef from our local farm which wins out in the end.”
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