2017 delicious. Produce Awards final: the judges

Karen Barnes has been editor of delicious. since April 2010, before that she was head of the Good Housekeeping Institute and has been a journalist for over 25 years. To say she’s mad about food is an understatement. She put together her first (handwritten) magazine (complete with recipes and crossword) at the age of six and has been obsessively reading about food and writing recipes ever since. She has two goals: to get more people into the kitchen so they can discover the rewards of cooking, and to champion the producers who work so hard to create food Britain can be proud of.

Matthew Fort is a food writer, critic and author of books including Sweet Honey, Bitter Lemon and Summer in the Islands. His food writing career began in 1986, when he started a food column in the Financial Times. From there he went on to be The Guardian’s Food and Drink Editor, a post he held for more than ten years. In 1992 he won Glenfiddich Food Writer of the Year, which he was awarded for a second time in 1993, along with The Restaurateurs Association Food Writer of the Year. In 2005 he was made Glenfiddich Cookery Writer of the Year. He has presented television programmes including the BBC’s Great British Menu and Good Food’s Market Kitchen.

Andi Oliver is a food presenter, chef and restaurateur. Although her career began in the music industry and has spanned both television and radio broadcasting, Andi’s love of food and cooking has been lifelong. As a young child, she was inspired by her mother’s Antiguan heritage and the diverse variety of food she came across on her family’s extensive travels. She has hosted several food programmes, including The Truth About Food and Neneh and Andi Dish It Up (with Neneh Cherry, her former Rip Rig + Panic bandmate) and is a regular panellist on BBC Radio 4’s The Kitchen Cabinet. After the success of her residency kitchen, Sugarshack, she has recently launched a permanent restaurant, Andi’s. Later this year, Andi will be taking on the role of judge on the Great British Menu.

John Farrand is Managing Director of The Guild of Fine Food, where he has been closely involved in the development of the Guild’s trade magazines, Fine Food Digest, Great Taste and Good Cheese. He has also worked on the Guild’s Fine Food Shows and their two major food awards, Great Taste and World Cheese. John puts his passion for food, cookery and promoting quality produce down to a childhood of being force-fed obscure foods, which lead to studying Agriculture and Food Industry Management at Wye College, University of London. The course embraced all aspects of the food industry, from farming and production through to marketing and sales, a combination that set him up perfectly for his later career.

Sue Quinn is an award-winning food writer, journalist and author of 13 cookbooks, including Easy Vegan, Easy Mediterranean and her latest, Cook Fast, Eat Well. She has also written books on topics as varied as Japanese and Spanish cuisine, children’s cookery and healthy eating. Sue’s articles and recipes regularly appear in the UK’s leading food publications including delicious., Sainsbury’s magazine, BBC Good Food, The Telegraph, The Sunday Times, and the Guardian. In 2016, Sue won the Fortnum & Mason Online Food Writer Award.

Ian Wild has been Operations Manager for the Hospitality School at Westminster Kingsway College for 15 years. His role involves managing the purchase of all the food and wine needed for teaching and for the School’s brasserie, fine dining restaurant and cafes. With over 2,000 full and part-time students studying at the School, as well the restaurants, cafes and conference rooms, this amounts to a lot of food and wine! Ian previously worked as Operations Manager at Groupe Chez Gérard.

Aggie MacKenzie, delicious. magazine’s very own kitchen gadget tester, is a journalist and TV and radio broadcaster, best known for co-presenting Channel 4’s How Clean is Your House. Aggie started her working life in MI6, after which she went on to pursue a career in women’s magazines. This lead her to a job at Good Housekeeping, where she was made head of the Good Housekeeping Institute. In 2011 she published her cookbook, Aggie’s Family Cookbook, and she continues to write food and travel columns for several publications.

Clerkenwell Boy is a social media star, blogger and journalist who eats out several times a day, snaps his food as he goes, and shares the photos with his 161,000 Instagram followers. Despite his huge following (Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver count themselves among his fans), Clerkenwell Boy’s identity is a mystery to all but a few. His rise to foodie stardom has seen him become one of the most well-respected critics on the London food scene, and yet the man behind the camera chooses to remain completely anonymous. Clerkenwell Boy has been recognised as one of the most important voices in the realms of food and social media, winning the 2016 Observer Food Monthly Award for the Best (Instagram) Feed for Food Lovers. Aside from his blogging and social media work, he co-founded Cook for Syria, a fundraising initiative which now has its own cookbook, and he writes for several London publications, including Suitcase Magazine.

Lucas Hollweg is an award-winning food writer, cook and author of cookbook Good Things To Eat. A former Sunday Times food columnist, he now writes for a variety of publications, including delicious. In 2012, Lucas was named Evelyn Rose Cookery Journalist of the Year.