Tom Kerridge: Dining at the top Gastropub table

So to be asked by the Publican’s Morning Advertiser to present these awards is a huge honour for me, my wife, Beth, and the whole team at the Hand & Flowers.

We have been very fortunate to have won a few awards in our time at the Hand & Flowers, but winning first place in the Budweiser Budvar Top 50 Gastropub Awards really was
a fantastic honour.

The Hand & Flowers first won the award in 2012, and it was the first awards ceremony we attended after we had landed two Michelin stars.

The warmth that we experienced on that day from everybody in the room — all high-quality gastropub operators in their own right — will stick with me forever. In fact, it brought my wife to tears.

It felt to us that British pubs were finally being recognised for producing great food — something many of us in this industry are doing.

We are the face of change in British food; we are the future of dining. The pub sector is talked about in many circles in a negative fashion, with the focus always seeming to be on pub closures. But in terms of craft ale, small distilleries and fantastic food-led businesses, the pub industry continues to go from strength to strength.

This awards ceremony is always very special because the awards are voted for and given out, not on what’s most fashionable, or on whose profile is the highest, but on a genuine and heartfelt appreciation of the businesses that have been shortlisted.

Recognition from your peers is a sure-fire sign that you are doing something truly right.

I am so proud to be a member of the pub industry and, as a collective force, all of us are working hard to create a worldwide reputation and to becoming a worldwide recognised movement.

If, every day, all of us strive to be just a little bit better than the day before, the only way is up for the British pub.

Congratulations and well done to everybody who has made this year’s top 50 Gastropub Awards list.

Long live the pub! Now let’s get on and do what we do best...