Southsea butchers picks up top-ranked Q Guild award for its steak skewers

Buckwell’s of Southsea achieved the diamond rating in the barbecue category of the Q Guild of Butchers 2020 Smithfield ‘Star’ Awards for its mighty steak skewers coated in black garlic.

The Osborne Road shop makes the dish using highly trimmed rump steak from the West Country with courgettes and red onion, coated with a black garlic glaze.

Judges deemed it ‘a great product overall with attractive presentation, great balance of colour and a lovely BBQ smell.’

They added: ‘The steak was tender and the flavour subtle yet so tasty.’

The team at Buckwell’s received a glass trophy from sponsor Innovative Food Ingredients, along with a voucher for goods or services.

Buckwell’s of Southsea owner John Buckwell said: ‘Naturally, we’re over the moon to pick up a category-leading Diamond award in the face of such strong competition from our fellow butchers nationwide. I dedicate this success to our entire team.’

For the first time this year, the revamped Smithfield ‘Star’ Awards had a brand-new star rating system through which certificates for one, two or three stars were awarded to products achieving a set standard.

Diamond awards were then achieved by pitching all the three star products against each other to find the category champion.

Buckwell’s received 10 additional product awards, including three of the one star awards, six of the two star awards and a three star award.

There were 220 products entered from 29 Q Guild butchers across the country, and a total of 73 achieved three stars, 52 got two stars and 44 received one star.

They were judged blind by an independent panel of food and meat sector experts headed up by Institute of Meat chief executive Keith Fisher.

Claire Holland, general manager for Q Guild of Butchers, said: ‘These awards are a great way of showcasing our members and their achievements.

‘They work really hard to develop outstanding products and to keep up with consumer trends therefore to have it topped off with an industry judged accolade is the icing on the cake, for which they should be very proud.’

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