Cotswold Life editor's letter May 2022

It’s happening.

A whole three years have passed since we’ve been able to hold our wonderful Food & Drink Awards and, as we all know, those three years have been particularly tough on our food, drink and hospitality industry.

We’ve dined in open-sided riverside tipis (a particular favourite of mine and the resident midges); picked up a takeaway – and done a bit of grocery shopping – at our local; and grabbed the eating-out-to-help-out thing with both hands... several times a month. And now we’re getting back to some sort of normality...

Yes, the industry has taken a hammering – and this has extended to our smaller retailers, farmers, producers and distribution networks – but there have also been good news stories.

Where possible, canny companies have been creative with their offerings and have used social media and online ordering portals to great effect (though – and feel free to call me a ‘boomer’ – if I never see another table-service app again in my life it’ll be too soon). We’ve created a new category for the awards – Resilience and Innovation – to applaud all those who haven’t taken the pandemic lying down and who have triumphed over adversity.

There have also been plenty of instances where people, furloughed from previous careers, have decided that if ever there was a good time to take the plunge and follow their dreams, it was now. And so, we raise a glass to all the new companies – the cafés, the micro-breweries, the bakers, the distillers, the chefs and more – who have set up business at a particularly difficult time, with many of them already winning awards. Bravo!

As ever, we need your help to nominate the businesses and individuals who you think are deserving of a prestigious Cotswold Life Food & Drink Award. Entry to the awards has always been and remains to be free, so visit our dedicated website at foodawards.cotswoldlife.co.uk and show some love to those who help make the Cotswolds one of the most celebrated places in the world for good food and drink. Once again, businesses will be invited to nominate themselves, too.

And when the big day comes, on October 17, we’ll be returning to Cheltenham Racecourse for our 20th year – with our brilliant hosts Emma Samms and Simon McCoy – to celebrate all that’s good about food and drink in the Cotswolds. It’s going to be quite the party – we really do have so much to celebrate – so please join us in giving back to those who give us our daily bread, milk, cheese, lamb, pies, pork, cider, gin, wine...

Candia McKormack
Editor, Cotswold Life magazine
candia.mckormack@archant.co.uk
Twitter: @cotslifeeditor

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Three things we learn in the May issue of Cotswold Life...

You hum it, son...
The star of Jools Holland's latest album is an 86-year-old battered, war-damaged pianola.

Pieces of eight
Cut-throat pirates will be raising funds for Severn Area Rescue Association in Gloucester on June 4.

Hedonistic happenings
The scandalous 'Souls' of Stanway believed the only unforgivable sin was to be dull or stupid.