There are no other awards more seriously contested and highly regarded in our field than the Baking Industry Awards.

Every year, applications are welcomed from bakers, confectioners and bakeries around the country, willing to pit themselves against the best of the best.

As a very young company we were a little hesitant to enter and put ourselves up against much longer-established bakeries, but there was no better way for us to measure ourselves against the competition.

After a visit from the judging panel we were delighted to have made the finals, and an invite ensued.

The venue, The Hilton in Park Lane, London, no less, and the date was set for the 7th of September.

Due to a recent bereavement, Duncan Glendinning, founder of The Thoughtful Bread company, was unable to attend as he needed to fill in at the bakery on the night shift. Head baker Patrick Ryan was there to represent.

The product that got us to the finals in the category of Speciality Bread Product of the year was our Slow Grana Padano loaf.

This very special bread was born out of a unique partnership between ourselves and the Slow Food UK organisation. The partnership was born at the BBC Good Food Show Winter ’10 when we supplied the Slow Food stand with some of our Great White Sourdough for them to use in there popular taste adventure. As their way of saying thank you, they donated a good portion of the Grana Padano cheese, a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) cheese of real pedigree. We set about developing a very special loaf as our way of sharing the Slow Food story and a small thank you for their generosity.

The bread is a heady mix of the hard italian cheese, walnuts and honey, made as a sourdough, providing a perfect balance of sweet, savoury with a slight sour undertone from the sourdough.

The event was star-studded with TV presenter Richard Madeley kicking off the proceedings in a glamorous Carnival themed night where no expense was spared.

We sadly did not bring home the trophy on this occasion, but came a close second to Bachmanns Bakery’s Rosemary & Raisin loaf. The other finalist in our category was Greenhalgh’s Craft Bakery’s Sweet Carribiean Brioche Naterre bread.

Find out more:

Baking Industry Awards
Slow Food UK