Q Guild 2015 BBQ Competition News

Derbyshire Q Guild butcher named as having one of the best BBQ products in the country

A butcher from Derbyshire is celebrating after success in the prestigious 2015 Q Guild BBQ competition, with officially one of the best barbecue products in the country.

Owen Taylor & Sons, from Leabrooks, Derbyshire, was runner-up in the national finals in the Best Speciality BBQ Product category.

They beat competitors from all over the UK in the contest run by the Q Guild, which represents 110 award-winning butchers from the Scottish Highlands down to the south coast.

The shop had already won the Midlands regional contest with their Greek Passion English Lamb Rump.

Shop manager Paul Swain said: “It’s a fantastic lamb dish, marinated in an oil-based marinade, with thyme, rosemary and garlic, perfect for oven-roasting or barbecuing. We use local lamb, all produced within a 20-mile radius – that’s where we believe the quality starts.

“We’re delighted to have done so well in the competition – the standards here are very high.”

Owen Taylor & Sons also collected five more gold awards in the regional contest for their Pork Sausage, Steak, Beefburger, Speciality Sausage and Speciality Burger.

Keith Fisher, Master Butcher Advisor for BPEX, was one of the competition judges at the national event, held at the Windmill Village Hotel in Coventry on May 31.

He said: “The first thing I do as a judge is look for the worst product to use as a baseline. Today it was impossible – we couldn’t find any ‘worst’ products. They were all very good and we enjoyed them all.” The other judges were Mike Richardson, of EBLEX, and Robert Sproat, of William Jones Packaging.

Ilkley butcher David Lishman, national vice-chairman of the Q Guild, who acted as MC at the presentation evening, said: “This is the great culmination of our annual BBQ competition. There have been 350 products put forward this year and these are the elite – the cream of the crop that we have seen here today.

“We’re all going to have a really good barbecue season when the sun does finally begin to shine.” 

Competition sponsors were Dalziel, EBLEX, Innovative Food Ingredients, Lucas Ingredients and MRC.