The winners of this year’s Tiptree World Bread Awards were announced earlier this week, and two Cumbrian bakeries were announced as runners up in the Northwest Region Bread Heroes award category, recognising the work they did in their respective communities to help out during 2020 and showing the continued development and strength in depth of the county’s artisan bakers.
The two runners up were South Lakeland’s Aidan Monks of Lovingly Artisan Bakery and Mike Hall of the Eden Valley’s Ivy Cottage Baker.
The duo were pipped to the top spot by deserving winner Irena Ruseva of South Manchester’s Flour & Soul Bakery.
This year due to the pandemic the awards ceremony was broadcast via social media, which saw 13 regional winners selected by the judging panel. The winners ranged from Bread and Beyond in Berkshire who teach baking to young adults with autism, to Jon Rosser in Wales who created a social media group, Bread Club 20, which supports thousands of new and seasoned bakers across the world, and Dan Booth from Darlington who, following redundancy, successfully crowdfunded to set up a not-for-profit community bakery.
In addition to the regional winners, there was a selection of special awards, one of which was Tiptree Outstanding Achievement Award. Others included the Brook Food Dream Team Award, KitchenAid Home Baker Hero, Shipton Mill Real Bread Hero, Wright’s Flour Award for Innovation, and the Zeelandia Award for Sustainability.
Commenting on their runner up spot husband and wife Aidan Monks and Catherine Connor, owners, and bakers at Lovingly Artisan, said: ‘’ Cumbria’s bakers have been leading the way for quite a while and it’s great that we and Ivy Cottage Baker are continuing to carry the torch for the county, especially as we are all still faced with huge challenges at the moment as we all try to adapt to ever changing circumstances. Being shortlisted as a finalist and recognised as a runner up in such great company has given us all a much-needed boost, especially as we gear up for the festive rush.’’
Details of the 2021 Tiptree World Bread Awards category winners and regional winners can be founded at: https://www.worldbreadawards.com/bread-hero-winners-2021/
