The world’s most coveted blind-tasted food awards, Great Taste, has just released the Great Taste stars of 2015 and Chesterfield Food Producer of the Year 2014, Liza Bakes Ltd is amongst the producers celebratingas its Victoria Sponge Cake, Belgian Chocolate Pecan Brownie, Mince Pies and for the second year in a row its Fruit and Ale Cake are now able to proudly carry the little gold and black Great Taste logo.
Judged by over 400 of the most demanding palates belonging to food critics, chefs, cooks, restaurateurs, producers and a host of food writers and journalists, Great Taste is widely acknowledged as the most respected food accreditation scheme for artisan and speciality food producers. When a product wears a Great Taste label it carries a badge of honour but more importantly, the Great Taste logo is a signpost to a wonderful tasting product – hundreds of judges have worked tirelessly to discover the very best, through hours and hours of blind-tasting a total of 10,000 different foods and drinks.
“Getting this prestigious award again and for another three of our products and one for the second year in a row is simply fantastic. It endorses what our customers tell us every day – that all our products taste superb” said Louise Milroy, Managing Director and Head Baker. “This is our third year as a limited company and the third year in a row that we have won awards for our products. It is a tribute to our award winning and hard-working bakery team and our passion – simply to produce every day the very best authentic artisan cakes, traybakes and desserts for all our customers”.

Liza Bakes Ltd is a family business. Louise started baking in her kitchen in 2005 and by 2008 was supplying premium handmade artisan bakery produce to local shops, cafes and delis from her bakery. Liza Bakes now has 8 Great Taste Award winners, supplies distinguished and award winning businesses across Derbyshire and as far afield as London; and is now able to supply individual retail customers placing orders online.
Louise said “We focus on supplying all our customers with consistently the very best tasting cakes and desserts. We want to help every local business we supply to stand out and we think they all do. Once again these Great Taste Awards enhance our reputation and contribute to the reputation of our brilliant customers. Over the past year our business has expanded strongly and we are proud to supply a wide range of fantastic local businesses across Derbyshire and surrounding counties. Our Great Taste Awards have contributed to this and undoubtedly helped the company to win Food Producer of the Year in the Chesterfield Food and Drink Awards 2014.”

Louise said that after taking care of the substantial orders for this week for established customers she and her team would be able to celebrate properly. “Then we have to prepare our award winning contribution for the Ashover Show coming up on Wednesday 12th August, as well as getting ready for the tasting event as a nominee again for Chesterfield Food Producer in the Chesterfield Food and Drink Awards 2015.
For Louise and her team the key to the success of the business is a passion for authentic great tasting food and long-term relationships. “Our business and reputation for outstanding products and service has been achieved over the past nine years by investing in our brilliant team and producing authentic, distinguished handmade produce, sourcing our ingredients wherever possible from Derbyshire and local partners.” Liza Bakes always use butter, free range eggs and quality nuts, fresh and dried fruits. “Our partnership with local businesses has been so important to us” said Louise Milroy. Suppliers to Liza Bakes include Ayres, Chesterfield Market for fresh fruit, fresh ginger and carrots for the carrot cake; Betty’s Farm at Willington near Derby supplies the free range eggs from their flock of 24,000 laying hens; and dried fruits, nuts, spices and some specialist sugars are supplied by Lembas, Sheffield, the specialty vegetarian and wholefood wholesalers.
Liza Bakes also works closely with award winning micro-breweries, providing the ales that go into the award winning Fruit and Ale Cake and Chocolate Beer Cake (both Great Taste 2014 Gold Star winners): Brampton Brewery a leading Chesterfield micro-brewery recreating the heritage of its predecessor – their Brampton Stout is a key ingredient for the “Brampton Fruit and Ale Cake” and the Impy Dark for the Chocolate Beer Cake; the Welbeck Abbey Brewery a traditional real ale brewery producing 15,000 pints of hand crafted ales a week, situated on one of England’s finest country estates, Welbeck Abbey. Their award winning Portland Black beer is a key ingredient for the “Welbeck Fruit and Ale Cake”; and the Derby Brewing Co with their Penny’s Porter a key ingredient for yet another variety of the award winning Fruit and Ale Cake and Chocolate Beer Cake from this award winning bakery.
Recognised as a stamp of excellence among consumers and retailers alike, Great Taste values taste above all else, with branding and packaging ignored. Whether it is cheese, ale, steak or chutney being
judged, all products are removed from their wrapper, jar or bottle before being tasted. The judges then savour, confer and re-taste to decide which products are worthy of a 1-, 2- or 3-star award.

There were 10,000 Great Taste entries this year and of those products, 130 have been awarded a 3-star, 597 received a 2-star and 2,382 were awarded a 1-star accolade. The panel of judges included Masterchef judge and restaurant critic Charles Campion, TV presenter and cook, Aggie Mackenzie, Great British Bake Off winner, Frances Quinn, Masterchef the Professionals finalist, Adam Handling, food buyers from Harrods, Selfridges, Waitrose and Marks & Spencer, and chefs including James Golding, Chef Director of The Pig hotel group, who have together tasted and re-judged the 3-star winners to finally agree on the 2015 Top 50 Foods, the Golden Fork Trophy winners and the new 2015 Supreme Champion.
Finally on Monday 7 September, at a nail-biting Awards’ Dinner at the Royal Garden Hotel, London, the great and the good from the world of fine food will gather to hear who has won the Golden Fork Awards and the final applause will be reserved for the Great Taste Supreme Champion 2015.

The main lounge at the Proact will be known as the DCJ Group Spires Restaurant following the agreement of a sponsorship deal with the Chesterfield-based insurance & risk management company.

Commenting on the deal, Chesterfield Champions, DCJ Group chief executive David Jones said: “The DCJ Group Spires Restaurant has been refurbished over the summer and it is a fantastic hospitality area. We are delighted to have our name associated with it.”

Kevin Fitzgerald, Chesterfield’s head of commercial & marketing, said: “I would like to thank the DCJ Group for their valued sponsorship. I am sure the DCJ Group Spires Restaurant will be very popular with those who wish to enjoy hospitality on a matchday.

“For the first time since the club moved to the Proact Stadium, we will be offering all our season ticket holders the opportunity to upgrade their match ticket to a hospitality package on a match-to-match basis. That means if you are celebrating a special occasion or just want to experience a particular game from the comfort of one of our lounges, you will be able to do so.”

Chesterfield-based Accountant Liz Fisher has scooped top honours in a prestigious national taxation exam, following her outstanding performance which saw her beat more than 1000 candidates to gain the highest marks.

Liz, who works at Mitchells Chartered Accountants and Business Advisers as Tax & Employer Solutions Manager, was awarded the Ronald Ison Medal for the candidate with the highest mark in the Advisory Paper on Taxation of Individuals. The exam was set by the Chartered Institute of Taxation, the principal body in the United Kingdom concerned solely with taxation.

Nationally, 395 people sat the Taxation of Individuals exam with only two thirds (67%) passing. Liz was also only one of only three candidates to be awarded a distinction in her Advisory Paper, gaining her the CCH Prize for the highest distinction mark awarded in the UK.

As well as Liz, Mitchells celebrated a hat trick of results in the exams with colleagues Partner Tim Leeman and Tax Specialist Lisa Eyre also securing passes. A total of 1,189 candidates entered the exams, with Liz, Tim and Lisa being three of 907 candidates to pass one or more papers in the May 2015 examination.

Tim Leeman was one of only 235 candidates in the May exam that completed all their CTA examinations which means he is now a qualified Chartered Tax Adviser, further strengthening Mitchells’ taxation team.

Successful completion of the exams has put Liz and Lisa one step closer to becoming a member of The Chartered Institute of Taxation and being able to call themselves Chartered Tax Advisers. The Chartered Tax Adviser (CTA) qualification is seen as the gold standard for tax professionals.

Liz said: “”I was really happy to pass the exam but totally shocked to win the award. It means I’m one step closer to completing the qualification overall and becoming a Chartered Tax Adviser which will further enhance the proactive tax advice Mitchells is able to provide to clients.”

President of the Chartered Institute of Taxation, Chris Jones, commenting on the results said: “I would like to offer my congratulations to all 907 of the candidates who have made progress towards becoming a Chartered Tax Adviser as a result of passing one or more papers at the May 2015 examination. 235 candidates have now successfully completed all of the CTA examinations and we very much look forward to them becoming members of the Institute in the very near future.”

One of the region’s leading estate agencies is sold on its new Chesterfield office.

Redbrik estate agency has purchased the historic former Shentalls building on Glumangate – which is straight across the road from its current sales office at number 22.

Redbrik’s new office will be home to the company’s existing sales team and their former office is set to become the company’s new lettings office.

Mark Ross, Director at Redbrik, said: “Our Chesterfield branch was our first Redbrik office when we launched the business just over two years ago and we love being located in the heart of the Town.

“The people of Chesterfield really have taken us to their hearts and we are delighted to have purchased yet another office on Glumangate.

“As a business we have experienced fantastic growth with offices in Millhouses and Crystal Peaks as well as two Chesterfield branches.

“Our new sales office is set to open in October and we will be offering the same level of outstanding customer service that people have now come to expect from Redbrik and with the same team of friendly staff who work so hard to deliver great results for every customer.”

To celebrate their move Redbrik have launched a social media campaign asking people to send photos of things that make them happy about where they live in Chesterfield.

Each week they will feature their favourite image in the frame on their new office windows.

To get involved people can tweet their image to @REDBRIKproperty using #happyinchesterfield