CHERRYTREE Bakery in Lisnaskea has baked up a storm with their wheaten bread, securing a coverted star in the Great Taste Awards 2015.

Organised by the Guild of Fine Food, the Great Taste Awards are seen as the Oscars of the food world.

For the first time ever the Lisnaskea bakery entered the prestigious worldwide competition with their family’s recipe for brown soda.

And to their delight they were one of only two businesses in Fermanagh to be recognised for their entry.

“The Great Taste Awards are seen as a benchmark for good food,” Glenn Charles of the Lisnaskea bakery explained.

“It takes in the great and the good of the food and restaurant trade and all the judges are highly skilled -- they know their stuff about food.” Over 400 judges, including specially trained food writers inputting judges’ comments, came together at 49 judging days from March through to early July this year.

The judges, from all corners of the food world, blind-tasted in teams of four or five ensuring a balance of expertise, age and gender.

“They look at the crumb, the texture and taste -- every single aspect is taken into consideration,” said Glenn, “We are just a small home bakery and we have only ourselves. But the likes of Lidl, Tesco and SuperValu -- all the large multi-nationals enter these awards as well.

“So for a small outfit like ourselves to get a star, I feel we are punching wll above our weight.” Glenn explained that his family’s wheaten bread recipe was developed around 40 years ago by his parents.

“And we have been selling it ever since!” There were 10,000 entries at this year’s awards with only 130 foods achieving the highest and most coveted rating, three stars.

“We had 597 foods grabbing two stars and 2,382 were awarded a one star,” said a spokesperson for the Great Taste Awards, “That means only 31 per cent of entries were accredited – it’s tough. Didn’t they do well?”