BASC has hailed the success of the inaugural Eat Game Awards after eleven winners were announced from almost 4,000 entrants.
BASC’s Taste of Game were one of the founders of the initiative, which was instigated to highlight the champions of British wild game and reward the innovation and passion of those who work with this natural countryside product.
After the 2018 awards dinner and ceremony in London, Taste of Game’s Annette Woolcock said: “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 even more nominations coming in, which will be quite an achievement as we had nearly 4,000 this year.”
The awards were presented to the overall winners across nine 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.
BASC sponsored the category ‘Best Game Farmers Market Stall including Street Food’, which was won by Redcar-based The Clucking Pig.
BASC chairman Peter Glenser QC said: “BASC and Taste of Game were honoured to be supporting the great British success story which is the fantastic game meat that finds its way on to plates up and down the land.
“Among all the entrants, there was outstanding innovation and a demonstrable passion to promote game at every opportunity. All the entrants, and obviously the winners and runners-up, should be rightly proud of their work.”