Good Food Awards

We're eagerly anticipating the announcement of the winners at tonight's Good Food Awards (and to try all the exceptional winning products). In the meantime, here's an inside look at the judging process, as well as a few jam tasting tips.

I hold onto the belief that sugar makes me sweet, and have long held a soft spot in my heart for jams, jellies, and fruit preserves. So, when I was invited to help judge the preserves category for this year's Good Food Awards, I signed up with no reservations.

As one of 28 judges for the preserves category, I was assigned to the western US states, and along with three other judges blind tasted more than 30 varieties of preserves from this bountiful region, including the usual suspects (jams, jellies, marmalade, and preserves) as well as vinegars, verjus, and even a dried fruit bar or two. And while I can't share the winners with you 'til after tonight — I don't even know who won our category as it was a blind tasting — I gleaned a few tips and tricks for analyzing what makes a truly ribbon-worthy preserve.

Keep reading for the (unofficial) guidelines that I've learned to use to distinguish between a preserve that's good and one that's great.

This weekend, food artisans from around the country are being honored in the second annual Good Food Awards, which celebrate American food producers who enhance the country's agricultural landscape and help to build community. While the awards are relatively new to the gastronomic landscape, they're already backed by some of the country's biggest food influencers, such as Whole Foods, and seminal culinary figures, like Ruth Reichl.
Ruth is currently the editorial adviser at Gilt Taste, another cosponsor of this weekend's Good Food Awards. The author, former New York Times food critic, and final Gourmet editor sat down with me over dinner at Mission Chinese Food to talk more about good food and future projects.

YumSugar: Tell me about the partnership between Gilt Taste and the Good Food Awards. How did it come about?
Ruth Reichl: I've known Sarah [Weiner, the director] for a long time, and we've been talking about this for a long time. When I went to Gilt Taste, it just seemed like a seamless, natural partnership, finding and supporting food artisans in America.

YS: You're the keynote speaker at this year's Good Food Awards. What kind of a legacy do these awards create?
RR: It's hard for younger people to understand how bad things were in America, a time when all food was essentially industrial. There were no farmers markets. I have an interview with Wolfgang Puck that I did in 1982 where he goes, "Six years ago, there was no decent food in America." Now, there's this explosion of farmers markets, and while so much of the world is abandoning their food heritage, Americans are reclaiming theirs before it gets lost . . . We have these two completely parallel, simultaneous, and opposite tracks: on the one hand, people with money who eat organic, sustainable, handmade food. But if you're a poor person, you're stuck eating stuff that's cheaper than food and that will kill you. Food safety in this country becomes a worse and worse issue; we import more and more food; 80 percent of the antibiotics in this country go to perfectly healthy animals. We have a real crisis on the one hand — and on the other hand, we have, for the first time, an awareness of it. Which is quite stunning.

I really do think American food is the best in the world right now, because of the people making the kind of food that goes to the Good Food Awards. We have to nurture it, and make sure that it doesn't just stay with us in this little enclave.

YS: There's movement toward eating a plant-based diet. What do you think of that?

To find out her answer, keep reading.

• Get to know your bitters better. — The Epi-Log
• Here's a rich vegetarian soup recipe. — The Atlantic
• Would you drink whiskey in a can? — Eater
• Alice Waters and Bruce Aidells are just a few people who attended the Good Food Awards. — Grub Street SF
• Chef Alain Ducasse is mentoring 15 underprivileged woman and teaching them how to cook. — The New York Times
• A new Kraft kiosk scans your face and knows what you should eat. — Fast Company
• A preview of James Kent's upcoming battle at the Bocuse d'Or. — The Feast
• Learn how to make Andrew Carmellini's cauliflower. — Serious Eats

• Taste tested: Taco Bell's Beefy Crunch Burrito. — Serious Eats
• Even without access to LA school cafeterias, Jamie Oliver pushes on. — Eater
• Ruth Reichl and Alice Waters will host the first Good Food Awards this weekend. — Grub Street SF
• Dining at Ina Garten's house. — The Hungry Beast
• Sustainable seafood ratings: are they all just marketing baloney? — Salon Food
• Warm up this Winter with an authentic Swiss meal, raclette. — Huffington Post Food
• Animal rights activists have sued the USDA over the food pyramid. — Slashfood
• New in Japan: the McDonald's Miami Burger. — Riptide 2.0