GREAT TASTE GOLDEN FORKS

Smoke on the water

Fourth-generation sh smokers and curers J. Lawrie & Sons have been preserving herring and other sh at their coastal base in the Scottish Highlands since 1945. Now, standing as the last bastion of the once-thriving Mallaig kipper industry, the company has shone the light for the traditional speciality by claiming the Supreme Champion title this year.

Main picture by Richard Faulks, ceremony photography by Phil Taylor

THE HIGHLANDS-BASED COMPANY has seen its kippers regularly land Great Taste awards – with four 3-star and three 1-star awards under its belt for the smoked herring, and has even picked up the Golden Fork from Scotland on three occasions, in 2011, 2012 and 2014 – but it went one step further this time. Having already been awarded the Golden Fork for Scotland, the Mallaig smokehouse was called to the stage a second time to collect the Supreme Champion trophy.

Once the lifeblood of Mallaig – a small port village in Lochaber – J. Lawrie & Sons is now the last remaining kipper yard producing the once-famous smoked herrings. And it was this history that Je Lawrie, great-grandson of the business’s founder Ja y, referenced when picking up the Supreme Champion gong in an emotional moment at the Great Taste 2021 Golden Fork awards ceremony last month.

The success of Ja y’s Mallaig Kippers, said Lawrie, can be attributed to his father. “This is my dad’s award,” he said, holding back tears. “He’s incredibly passionate about the food he produces, always tinkering and changing things to try and make them better and live up to the traditions he’s inherited.”

The award was the last to be announced at the rst in-person Great Taste Golden Fork reception since 2019, held at the Yorkshire Event Centre in Harrogate on Sunday 17th October.

“Carefully and artfully produced” using a 30 brick kiln powered by the wind, the herrings are cured in sea salt and slowly smoked over whisky cask oak shavings. “Juicy and tender, silky and sweet, Ja y’s Mallaig Kippers deliver the perfect balance of wood, smoke and sh,” said the judges.

The product fought o competition from 218 Great Taste 3-star award-winning products that were re-judged to nd this year’s regional Golden Fork trophy winners. The “plump and succulent” herrings, which are traditionally cured and cold smoked, impressed the judges at every stage of the blind-tasting process to earn Ja y’s Mallaig Kippers the biggest prize in food and drink.

In total, 14,113 entries to Great Taste 2021 were blind tasted by 355 judges over the course of 86 days at four venues, including Guild HQ in Gillingham, Dorset, and the Guild’s London home, No. 42 Southwark

The product fought o competition from 218 Great Taste 3-star awardwinning products that were re-judged to nd this year’s regional Golden Fork trophy winners.

Big winners celebrate at Golden Forks ceremony

John Farrand, managing director of the Guild of Fine Food with Jeff Lawrie from J. Lawrie & Sons

Street. Of these entries, 4,027 received 1-star awards and 1,138 were awarded 2-stars.

Just 218 products were deemed worthy of the highest 3-star award and were assessed again to determine which would win the coveted Golden Forks.

jaffys.co.uk

Top, Jeff Lawrie is handed his Golden Fork from Scotland. Bottom, he is called upon for a second time as Jaffy’s Mallaig Kippers are awarded the Great Taste 2021 Supreme Champion

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