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COUNTY DURHAM food producers have been celebrating after being rewarded for their good taste.

As part of the highly successful Distinctly Delicious – Darlington Festival of Food a number of exhibitors were voted Festival Favourites in the Best Taste Awards.

A team of judges, including Rockliffe Hall Executive Chef Paul O’Hara and home economist Jill Weatherburn tasted and tried all of the foods on offer and came up with their winning choices.

Darlington’s Clervaux Bakery took one of the honours for its Black Pudding Bread while Stoneygate Farm’s Cumberland sausage was also given an award.

Broom Mill Farm’s Chorizo sausage, Richmond Brewing Company’s Swale Ale and the Health Warehouse’s Vegan Chocolate Cake were also all pronounced delicious and received their certificates as favourites.

Paul O’Hara said: “Being invited to judge so much great produce from the wide variety of market stalls was really interesting as they all had quite different offerings.

“Local produce and supporting local suppliers is something that we at Rockliffe Hall strive to support. It’s great to know that there’s so much top quality produce right on our doorstep with such diverse producers from real ales to a vegan patisserie.”

“All of our winners created superb products and it demonstrates how much delicious produce is available in this area,” said Alex Hirst, manager of Distinct Darlington which organised the festival.

“It was a very hard choice for the judges as the quality was very high from all producers but they picked some really worthy winners.”

The Festival Favourites were part of a whole weekend programme of events which included eat-along movies, street theatre, workshops and the Locomotion Cake Parade.

“The festival was a huge success and we’ve had great feedback both from the public, local businesses and those that traded at the event,” said Alex.

“We are delighted with the response we’ve had from everyone who attended and look forward to planning next year’s Festival of Food for Darlington town centre.”