Thirty-third PAPA Awards honours its

Thirty-third PAPA Awards honours its winners and active support of the industry

On Thursday, 10 November 2022, PAPA director, Jim Winship, welcomed guests to the thirty-third PAPA Awards, acknowledging that it was good to see so many people in attendance given the prevailing economic conditions, rail strikes and other woes affecting the world of hospitality at present.

Jim Winship thanked the sponsors for their continued support for the Awards, including the headline sponsors, Just Eat and Stateside Foods, as well as Jestic and Leathams for hosting judging days and providing access to their fantastic kitchen facilities. He acknowledged the support from I Love Italian Food for working with PAPA to help create the Italian Pizza Show where the finals of the Pizza Chef and Pasta Chef of the Year competitions were held, with thanks going again to Jestic for providing the ovens and equipment used in those finals.

Thanks were also offered to Kantar, mealtrak and Lumina Intelligence for providing PAPA with data which informed the judging process, and to all those who had taken part in the UK-wide judging process itself. Jim Winship went on to thank the dedicated individuals on the PAPA management committee who work hard behind the scenes to support not only the Association, but its members and the industry as a whole.

In his awards dinner speech, outgoing PAPA chair, Keith Griffiths (pictured, head of food innovation & technology - UK & Europe, Yum! III (UK) Limited), who will be handing over the post to Richard Harrow, thanked attendees for their continued support of the event, as well of the work of PAPA itself and all the sponsors and participants in the PAPA awards ‘journey’.

“It had been another year that you couldn’t write,” said Keith Griffiths. “A year of high inflation, continued labour shortages, HFSS, the passing of the Queen, political unrest… After being in this industry for over 40 years – and 35 of those with pizza - I can honestly say that it’s never been so challenging.

“There are still strong headwinds ahead of us. However, the past is the past, and we will adapt and move on from this as we go forward together in 2023; we all hope, that is.

“Having had the honour to have served as PAPA chair over the last two years, I feel I must share with you the passion the voluntary committee members have for this Association. It’s just incredible. These committee members come from all walks of life in the industry… The topics of the meetings we have always focus on industry issues and aim to provide the best guidance in turn made available on the web site and through bulletins.”

Keith Griffiths offered special thanks to PAPA director Jim Winship for leading the organisation and the continual lobbying of the government that he does, as do the industry leaders who help to educate about the consequences of the policies being proposed and pushing for a fairer and reasonable way forward for us all. Better times lay ahead, said Keith Griffiths, referencing the World Cup (which also coincided with National Pizza Week). As PAPA’s outgoing chair, he also thanked all those at PAPA, not least the events team responsible for putting the Awards together.

“Most of the things in this world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all, so please, persevere!” concluded Keith Griffiths.

Firelli Hot Sauce launches trio gift pack

Firelli Hot Sauce has announced the launch of their trio gift pack.

All natural Firelli Hot Sauce claims to be the world’s first global Italian hot sauce and is a low calorie, gluten free and vegan healthy alternative to drizzling chilli oil on food, say the brand (Firelli now has three hot sauces in its range - Firelli, Firelli Truffle and Firelli Extra Hot).

Firelli is hand-crafted in Parma in Italy from natural ingredients and is medium spiced, not overwhelmingly hot, but rich, rounded and spicy to give a kick to food. The hot sauce has a Scoville unit rating on the chilli pepper scale, of between 1,000 – 2,000, meaning in that a few drops on your favourite foods such as pizza, pasta, eggs or salads can add a rich and rounded spicy flavour.