Chesterfield Food and Drink Awards

We were delighted to, once again, be a part of the Chesterfield Food and Drink Awards organised by client Destination Chesterfield on 31 October 2018.

Chesterfield College’s Heart Space building was transformed to host the black-tie event, which, this year, was hosted by celebrity chef Lesley Waters.

We love this event. It’s a great mix of work and pleasure. We get to see first hand how Chesterfield’s food and drink scene is not just growing but thriving.

This year the prestigious title of Restaurant of the Year was awarded to Bottle and Thyme, not even two years after they opened. They were one of 13 restaurants, bars, cafes, food producers and individuals to take away an award.

Junction Bar and Stephenson’s Tea and Coffee House both came away from the evening with two awards each.

The sixth year of the Food and Drink Awards has seen the number of awards grow with new categories added this year in the form of Apprentice of the Year and Apprentice Employer of the Year, scooped by Corey Elliot of The Lilypad Café Restaurant and Stephenson’s Tea and Coffee House respectively.

Anna had the pleasure of meeting all the shortlisted apprentices just before the awards when she took them to Peak FM to be interviewed by breakfast show presenters Ricky and Becky. She said: “All three of the apprentices – Corey, Ben and Courtney, were absolute pros on the radio. They claimed to be nervous before they went on air, but you couldn’t tell. They were fantastic.”

Growing the next generation of skilled workforce is something that we feel very strongly about at In the Works PR, and it’s wonderful to be able to work with an organisation such as Destination Chesterfield that holds the same beliefs and values at heart and is also working to spread the word about the benefits of apprenticeships.

As well as meeting the shortlisted apprentices, Anna also took in a selection of food from the businesses shortlisted in the Food Producer of the Year category. At 7.30am Ricky and Becky sampled brownies, tea and pate. No-one was complaining, particularly where the brownies were concerned!

Our work with Destination Chesterfield will continue later in the month with a launch of Made in Chesterfield. More information and the full list of winners from the Chesterfield Food and Drink Awards can be found at www.chesterfield.co.uk/foodanddrinkawards/.

We had a fantastic evening and as always are proud to be a part of such a celebratory, progressive event in such a vibrant, passionate town that we’re lucky enough to call home. Huge congratulations to everybody involved.