Eat Game Awards 2018: Celebrating Wild British Produce

The Eat Game Awards is an ini­tia­tive cre­at­ed by three lead­ing British busi­ness­es, James Purdey & Sons Ltd, Bois­dale Restau­rants and Taste of Game, bring­ing togeth­er the shoot­ing, game meat and hos­pi­tal­i­ty sec­tors to cel­e­brate the wild game meat pro­duced in Britain.

Host­ed by Bois­dale Restau­rants on Tues­day 9^th Octo­ber, Bois­dale Canary Wharf wel­comed final­ists from across the coun­try for the Eat Game Awards 2018 din­ner and ceremony.

Host­ed by BBC’s Adam Hen­son, along­side JB Gill, William Sitwell, Rose Prince and Mark Hix, the awards were pre­sent­ed to the over­all win­ners across 9 cat­e­gories, vot­ed for by the pub­lic, with the addi­tion of ​‘Cham­pi­on of Cham­pi­ons’, decid­ed by the pan­el of judges and ​‘Scot­tish Cham­pi­on’, award­ed to the Scot­tish final­ist with the most over­all votes.

The full results from the night can be found below. High­lights includ­ed, Jess Noy (The Game Keep­ers Daugh­ter), a young Chef from Suf­folk who took home the acco­lade of ​‘Best Chef’, against the likes of famous chefs, Richard Cor­ri­g­an and Tom Aikens. YouTube Star and Butch­er, Scott Rea, land­ed awards for Best Butch­er and Game Hero fol­low­ing an over­whelm­ing amount of sup­port. The over­all award for Cham­pi­on of Cham­pi­ons, vot­ed for by the Eat Game Awards pan­el, was pre­sent­ed to shoot-chef, Tris­tan Prud­den of Con­sta­ble Bur­ton Estate, for going above and beyond in every area of the pro­mot­ing of and serv­ing of game.

The Awards reflect the ever-grow­ing use of wild game, high­light­ing the cham­pi­ons of British game and reward­ing their suc­cess, inno­va­tion and pas­sion in work­ing with this nat­ur­al coun­try­side har­vest. The nom­i­nat­ed char­i­ty that the Awards will be sup­port­ing is The Coun­try Food Trust, whose aim is to feed those in need with game meat casseroles pack­aged in ready-to-eat long-life pouches.

Com­ments from the Founders:

James Horne of Purdey:​“We were par­tic­u­lar­ly keen to raise the pro­file of the thou­sands of small to medi­um sized busi­ness­es that use game in their prod­ucts. The sheer num­ber of nom­i­na­tions and then the enor­mous local cov­er­age so many busi­ness­es have received has been fan­tas­tic to see. This pub­lic­i­ty is the oxy­gen that so many small busi­ness­es need in order to grow. The awards’ suc­cess has relied on the use of social media and it is how busi­ness­es use this com­mu­ni­ca­tion process that is so vital for the future. So, I hope that those that are a less savvy with this media are more moti­vat­ed to enter next year.”

Ranald Mac­don­ald of Bois­dale:​“We found­ed this event with our part­ners to cel­e­brate the fan­tas­tic wild game that forms a cen­tre­piece for our nation­al cui­sine and which is inte­gral to the sur­vival of the Great British coun­try­side. We have brought togeth­er indi­vid­u­als and busi­ness­es around the coun­try who are already doing so much for the indus­try and who share the same pas­sion for sus­tain­able food it pro­duces. I very much look for­ward to serv­ing game through­out Bois­dale restau­rants this sea­son and, I hope, many more to come.”

Annette Wool­cock of Taste of Game:​“The awards have been a huge suc­cess and achieved more than we hoped for in the first year, rais­ing the pro­file of game and the small busi­ness­es who use game all over the coun­try. We have engaged with many more of the pub­lic than expect­ed which is very excit­ing and giv­en those local heroes a boost and the recog­ni­tion that they deserve. Next year I would like to see many more nom­i­na­tions com­ing in which will be quite an achieve­ment as we had near­ly 4,000 this year.”

Eat Game Awards 2018 Winners:

Best Restau­rant Reg­u­lar­ly Serv­ing Game

Bistro Forty-Six

Best Pub Reg­u­lar­ly Serv­ing Game

The Sut­ton Gamekeeper

Best Chef Reg­u­lar­ly Cook­ing Game

Jess Noy ​‘The Game­keep­ers Daughter’

Best Game Farm­ers Mar­ket Stall includ­ing Street Food

The Cluck­ing Pig

Best Added Val­ue Game Meat Product

Tru­ly Traceable

Best Mul­ti­ple Retail­er Sell­ing Game

Aldi

Best Small Retail­er Sell­ing Game

Wild Meat Company

Best Game Butcher

Scott Rea

Game Hero

Scott Rea

Cham­pi­on of Champions

Tris­tan Prud­den, Con­sta­ble Bur­ton Estate

Scot­tish Champion

Sinclair’s Kitchen

Best Teacher – Game Chang­er Project

Mary McGauley