Christmas and New Year is always a busy time of year, but this year has been spectacularly busy.  Thank you to all our loyal customers and friends.  We hope Dalbeattie Fine Foods helped make your festive meals extra-delicious this year.

Haggis, haggis, haggis and more haggis is what we’ve been thinking about this month.  The 250th anniversary of Robert Burns’ birth and all the Homecoming Scotland 2009 celebrations mean that demand for our Champion Haggis has rocketed.  This is of course fantastic news and it’s been a great start to the year in what is normally a quiet timefor butchers.

There’s been interest from around the globe in our Champion Haggis this year – if you spot a mention of the Dalbeattie Fine Foods haggis anywhere do let us know – we’ll be putting a summary of haggis stories up on the blog soon.

UK Young Butcher of the Year 2008 won by Alan Elliott of Dalbeattie Fine Foods

Photo Opportunity:  Please contact Alan Elliott at Dalbeattie Fine Foods on 01556 610 349

Alan Elliott owner of Dalbeattie Fine Foods in Dalbeattie, Dumfries and Galloway, was named Young Butcher of the Year at the Butcher’s Shop of the Year 2008 awards, held at a lavish ceremony at London’s Sheraton Park Lane hotel on Tuesday November 18.

Alan started working part time in a butchers shop in Northern Ireland when he was just 14 and such was his prodigious talent and enthusiasm for the trade that on his 19^th birthday he opened his own shop in Dalbeattie in south west Scotland.   Today Alan and his team at Dalbeattie Fine Foods are being hailed as one of the most exciting butchers in the UK, having already collected an unprecedented number of awards for their products, including being Scotland’s reigning Haggis Champion, Black Pudding Champion and Traditional Steak Pie Champion.  

The Butcher’s Shop of the Year Awards are run by Meat Trades Journal. Editor Ed Bedington commented:

“Alan’s sheer energy and ambition dazzled the judges who felt his achievements from such a young age deserved to be recognised.  Alan is a great example for all young people either in the trade or looking to come in. The industry needs more youngsters like Alan to help drive it forward.”

Receiving the award Alan said:

“I am absolutely over the moon.  This is a very prestigious award and it attracts entries from the very best people in the butchery industry across the UK, so I am thrilled to have won the title of Young Butcher of the Year 2008.  The continued support of the people of Dalbeattie has played a big part in the success of Dalbeattie Fine Foods.

“We are looking forward to another exciting year in 2009 including developing our internet sales, building the Dalbeattie Fine Foods brand, opening a new shop and making the most of being Scotland’s Haggis Champion during the 2009 Homecoming celebrations and the 250^th year of Robert Burns’ birth.”

Douglas Scott of the Scottish Federation of Meat Traders, who organises the competition to find Scotland’s Haggis Champion, said:

“I sometimes feel that it would be nice to share the honours around but you just can’t keep down an ambitious young man like Alan.  He just keeps winning and well done to him!

“I hope his success resonates around the industry to demonstrate to the youth of today that there are great opportunities in the meat industry and with a slice of Alan’s kind of enthusiasm there are no boundaries to what can be achieved.”

Quality Meat Scotland Chairman Donald Biggar said:

“What a fantastic achievement by Alan. Not only has he lifted some of the top butcher titles in Scotland, he’s now firmly made his mark on the UK butcher scene.

“We are delighted to work with him as a member of the Scotch Butchers Club. He is an excellent supporter of the Scottish red meat industry, developing the finest quality products from Scotch Beef, Scotch Lamb and Specially Selected Pork.”

Other awards at the event included Butcher’s Shop of the Year and Farm Shop of the Year.

Dalbeattie Fine Foods’ range of award winning products can be seen at www.dalbeattiefinefoods.co.uk

If you miss it, or if you don’t receive BBC 2 Scotland, fear not!  You should be able to watch it on BBC iplayer from Saturday so if you want to see Dalbeattie Fine Foods hitting the small screen, check back here for the link.

Here’s a copy of the press release that the Scottish Federation of Meat Traders issued about our win:

Winner in a million

The odds against this are approaching a million to one but Dalbeattie butcher Alan Elliot has lifted his third Scottish title in two years. Already the reigning Scottish Champion for the best Traditional Steak Pie and Scottish Haggis Champion the Irishman, who only set up in business in 2004 on his 19^th birthday, has now added the Scottish Black Pudding title to his string of awards. Needless to say this has never been done before.

His Black Pudding was judged for appearance, texture, seasoning, taste and appeal. At the end of the competition organised by the Scottish Federation of Meat Traders the Dalbeattie pudding turned out to be another Chieftan. Dalbeattie Fine Foods were first, established them as the best in the South West of Scotland, and then after sending mystery shoppers into all five Regional Champions, a panel of experts at Food Innovation Abertay University decided the Dumfries and Galloway black pudding was the nation’s best.

Alan Elliot hails from Cookstown in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland and had worked in a local butchers business there from the age of 15 before crossing the water to take on the shop in Dalbeattie.

Awards won by:- Dalbeattie Fine Foods:

2007 South West of Scotland & National Traditional Butchers Steak Pie Champion,

2007 South West of Scotland & National Haggis Champion,

2008 South West of Scotland & National Black Pudding Champion,

“Black Pudding has a cult following in Britain” said Jim Fox of contest sponsors Dalziel Ltd “and I would anticipate lots of potential visitors will be reaching for their road atlas.”

Douglas Scott, Chief Executive of the organisers SFMTA added:-

“This competition is hotly contested and to be the top prize winners again is absolutely unbelievable. Alan can take great pride from his achievements, they are certainly unique. Such success is not down to good luck, good meat products are a sign of a good butcher.”

Alan Eliott of Dalbeattie Fine Foods said he was delighted to now have a hat-trick of Champion products:-

“I’m quite shocked to have won again, but very, very pleased.  Developing my recipes is a labour of love and something I’m passionate about.  These awards really do set the standard for excellence in meat products, as can be seen from the high numbers of entries they receive and the prestigious names on their past winners lists.  I spend a long time fine tuning my meat products, so I’m delighted that the judges of all three awards felt my products deserved National Champion status.

“With all my traditional meat products I’ve tried to get to the heart of the products, to rediscover their roots and to identify what made these products so popular and what has given them such longevity.  I’m very pleased with the recipes I’ve developed, and chuffed to bits that my customers and the judges enjoy my products so much.”