2020 Awards for Excellence in Vegetarian and Vegan Care Catering
First launched in 2016, the Annual Awards highlight the importance of catering well for older vegetarians and vegans. We recently surveyed 1,000 care homes to find out how many residents are vegan or vegetarian. Since the survey was last commissioned in 2014, the number of vegans in residential care has increased by a whopping 167%!
With growing numbers of vegetarians being supported by the care sector, it is no surprise that news of the awards has been positively received by care organisations. Articles about the awards have been published by the NACC, Care Home Catering, Hospitality Assured and more.
It’s becoming impossible to ignore the demand for top-notch veggie care catering.
We’re excited to announce the winners for VfL’s 2020 Awards for Excellence in Vegetarian Care Catering.
The categories for this year’s awards were:
- Veggie Care Chef of the Year. We wanted to find the care chef who is making the tastiest meals for older vegans or veggies.
- Veggie Wholesaler of the Year. Meals on Wheels? Food delivery service? Retailer supplying the care sector? Let’s celebrate that company that makes veggie meals easy and practical for everyone.
- The Beulah Charity Trust Special Recognition Award. This is for that special someone who strives to make the UK a better place for older vegans and vegetarians. This could be a volunteer, a resident, a staff member or anyone pursuing this objective.
- Most Innovative Veggie Dish. We wanted someone to send us one magnificent recipe – something that is original, and that we can recommend to care caterers around the UK.
All winners were announced in a virtual awards ceremony on Thursday 3 December 2020. Hosted by English comedian, actor, writer and film producer Dave Spikey, this year’s star-studded awards ceremony was streamed live via Facebook and YouTube, where you can still watch, if you missed it! The event included inspiring talks covering best practice when catering for vegetarians and vegans in a care setting.
Read on for further details of this year’s winners…
Veggie Care Chef of the Year – winners were announced by Rose Elliot MBE.
Vegetarian for Life Patron, Rose Elliot MBE, has written over 70 vegetarian and vegan cookery books as well as books about mindfulness, Buddhism and astrology. Rose turned vegan over 5 years ago after being vegetarian since she was a little girl – and has never eaten meat.
This year’s winner of Veggie Care Chef of The Year was:
- Grant Burton, Head Chef of The Hawthorns in Braintree
This year’s runners up for Veggie Care Chef of the Year were:
- Ben Kerslake, Head Chef of Frome Nursing Home
- Juan Lopez of Birchwood Grange in Harrow
Most Innovative Veggie Dish – Winners were announced by Peter Egan.
Peter has recently been filming After Life with Ricky Gervais. You may know Peter from a list of TV and film too long to mention – but credits include Downton Abbey, Unforgotten, and the legendary Ever Decreasing Circles.
This year’s winner of Most Innovative Veggie Dish was:
- Gary McGurk, Primose Bank Care Home in Poulton le Fylde – Pan Seared Watermelon
This year’s runners up for Most Innovative Veggie Dish were:
- Marcin Lipingoa, Chef at Sunrise Senior Living, Guildford – Vegan Sweet and Savoury Pierogi
- Dorin Matei, Head Chef at Avery Scholarsmews Care Home in Stratford Upon Avon – Vegan Cauliflower Roulade
Veggie Wholesaler of The Year – winners were announced by Gary Webster.
Gary has starred in TV shows such as EastEnders and Minder. Gary has just launched a new blog garywebsterenoughsaid.com, and after being vegetarian for 20 years, he is now vegan after taking part in Veganuary earlier this year.
This year’s winner of Veggie Wholesaler of The Year was:
- Bidfood
This year’s runners up for Veggie Wholesaler of The Year were:
- Brakes
- Thomas Ridley
The Beulah Charity Trust Special Recognition Award – winners were announced by Wendy Turner Webster.
TV presenter and author, Wendy, is currently presenting for Together TV and has been vegan for 28 years.
This year’s winner for The Beulah Charity Trust Special Recognition Award was:
- The Moreton Centre in East Sussex
This year’s runners up for The Beulah Charity Trust Special Recognition Award were:
- Avery Healthcare Culinary Team
- Garden City Court Care Home in Hertfordshire
Visit our Veggie Heroes Past Winners page to see who has been honoured since the awards were first launched.
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