Judged by the experts, Carolyn Stewart is awarded a Great Taste Star in world’s most coveted food and drink awards.
Belfast-based, Carolyn Stewart’s Totally Hot NI company has been named among the top food and drink producers globally this year, picking up a highly prized Great Taste Award Star for its Carolyn Stewart’s Mini Chicken Jamaican Patties.
14,195 products were put through the competition’s rigorous blind judging process. Carolyn Stewart’s patties were dubbed a success by judges who found them generously filled with a good balance of spices and a pleasing warmth at the world’s most coveted food and drink awards. 4,088 products were awarded a Great Taste Star – ‘food and drink that delivers fantastic flavour’.
Carolyn’s patties were a big hit with the Great Taste judges described as:
“These are great looking parcels of savoury spicy filling and golden pastry, giving an enticing spicy aroma. The crisp pastry releases a well-judged filling, rich with well-balanced spices that give great complexity and length. Add some mango chutney and you are in spice heaven.”
“We loved the perfectly baked appearance of this pasty, golden brown with a truly delightful aroma of buttery pastry and carefully selected spices. The filling was generous and the chicken tasty.”
“Very attractive and well made golden pastry formed in a very neat pasty shape, The pastry is clean and spicy and it lingers. A potential party star.”
“These look really appealing, with a vibrant colour and a good even bake.”
Made with locally sourced ground chicken from Primacy Farm Butchers in Bangor, Carolyn’s patties are a delicious combination of spring onion, garlic and ginger with scotch bonnet chillis, herbs and spices wrapped up in flaky butter pastry.
Carolyn is well known throughout Northern Ireland as a celebrated DJ and U105 Lunch Presenter, but she has also been cooking up a storm in the kitchen since 2016, when she set up Totally Hot NI to produce a range of hot pickles, marinades and sauces. In May last year she added her Caribbean Patties to her product range and this is her 6th Great Taste Award.
Carolyn Stewart says:
“I am thrilled to have won a Great Taste award for my Mini-Chicken Jamaican Patties. I have dreamt of this moment and I’m so proud to be adding the prestigious black and gold Great Taste badge of honour to my growing list of food awards.
“Since I first visited Jamacia many years ago, I have always loved their Caribbean patties. I’ve been trying to perfect my recipe for years and last year I knew I had it cracked with just the right combination of ingredients to introduce my very own authentic Jamaican patty range.”
“In May 2022 I moved from my home kitchen in Bangor to a new purpose-built kitchen unit at Townsend Enterprise Park in Belfast and since then my business has literally taken off. We’re now in St George’s Market every Friday to Sunday with our full range of products at my Patty Shack and we’re also available in more than 25 independent gourmet stockists across Northern Ireland.
“I couldn’t have achieved this success without the amazing support of my family and friends who have been helping out with the cooking, packing and serving and my listeners who have been on this journey with me since the beginning offering great support. I’m living my dream life as I get to enjoy my passions at work, music at U105 and cooking with Totally Hot NI. Next year I hope to be in a position to start employing staff to take my business to the next level.
“Being recognised with a Great Taste Star means so much to independent producers such as myself, as it makes all the hard work and determination worth it! Great Taste is the most recognised accolade for taste and quality in the food and drink industry, so it’s a huge moment for me!”
Carolyn’s Mini Chicken Jamaican Patties was one of 5,904 products to receive a Great Taste award in 2023 (which is only 41.6% of the total products entered).
What is Great Taste?
Recognised as a stamp of excellence and actively sought out by food lovers and retailers alike, Great Taste, organised by the Guild of Fine Food, values taste above all else. All products in the line-up for judging are blind tasted: every product is removed from its packaging so it cannot be identified, before entering a robust, layered judging process. This year, judging took place over 89 days in Dorset and London, with a panel of more than 500 judges putting the products to the test. The line-up saw food and drink products submitted from an extraordinary 109 different countries across the world.
For more information about Carolyn Stewart’s Totally Hot NI visit Carolyn Stewart | Turn up the flavour!
Follow Carolyn on socials at Instagram @carolynstewartni, twitter @TotallyHotNI and www.facebook.com/TotallyHotNI
