About the Guild of Fine Food

As comfortable answering the phone as presenting to a government panel, JF runs our finely tuned team. In control both financially and operationally, he also contributes monthly to Fine Food Digest, is front of stage at our award ceremonies and represents our sector and membership on various industry groups, including the Food & Drink Sector Council, DEFRA’s SME group and the Independent Retailers Confederation, as well as beating the drum for the independent retail, worthy food & drink producers, and the preservation of the high street in panel discussions and press interviews.

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Responsible for the Guild’s business and communications strategy, and developing our operational and digital systems, Christabel is instrumental in the efficiency and future planning of the business.

Taking the lead with our forward planning and communications, she also plays a key role in brand positioning and proposition development.

Before working with the Guild, Christabel ran wine awards and events in the UK and Asia, for international wine magazine Decanter, so knows a thing or two about helping producers around the world get the word out about their products.

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Heading up the sales team, Sally is responsible for advertising and sponsorship across all the Guild’s monthly and annual publications, Great Taste Markets, awards schemes and events. Whether you are a producer or a retailer based in the UK or overseas – or your clients are – she and her team will help you find the best solution for your target audience and budget.

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Tortie’s role at the Guild is far-reaching, but she’s probably best known for nurturing our food and drink contacts and ensuring we have the best possible blend of judges for Great Taste and World Cheese. Responsible for improving product knowledge, she leads on workshops and events to develop the Guild of Fine Food community.

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Michael honed his craft as a business journalist covering commercial property, travel and construction for various magazines before joining the Guild of Fine Food and Fine Fine Digest.

Ensuring we bring the latest developments and interesting perspectives from the food & drink industry to our readers, Michael welcomes comment from across the industry.

Mike is also the editor of our latest publication, our quarterly cheese magazine for consumers: Wedge.

Always hungry for latest food & drink news, Tani is a key part of the team producing Fine Food Digest and our host of other publications throughout the year. Organised and articulate, she is a major contributor across all our print titles, as well as online. A fluent French-speaker with great chef connections, built up from her years at The Staff Canteen. Tani has recently been studying for her WSET qualifications and is often the voice behind Fine Food Digest drinks focus pages.

Becky looks after our advertisers and event exhibitors. Having been part of the sales team since 2005, her wealth of experience in the sector means she is uniquely well connected to make sure her clients get their products and services in front the right people in our audience.

Henry’s time working in hospitality before he joined the Guild has put him in a great position to understand the food and drink producers that are now his clients.  Working hard to help them get their products out to our audiences, Henry works across all our publications including Fine Food Digest, Great Taste Book, Best Brands, and Good Cheese – as well as ensuring Great Taste entrants have the chance to exhibit at Great Taste Markets across the year.

After a previous life as cheesemonger, Jenna’s experience in the speciality food and drink sector combined with her substantial marketing skills make her an excellent person to lead our marketing and communications. Deftly handling our marketing for both awards schemes, as well as our other activities across the business, and helping to steer our social media output, Jenna and her team are often the people behind much of what you see and read about from the Guild.

Frances’s background assisting with running a deli with a cheese and wine speciality means she really understands what it takes to run a small retail business and has plenty of experience working with small food and drink producers.  Assisting Jenna with our marketing and communications across the business, Frances lends her skills particularly to our social media and newsletters – as well as supporting the operations team with food and drink knowledge at entry time.

Claire started her career as a journalist and so knows what catches the eye of the press. With experience of working on PR campaigns from Comic Relief to St John Ambulance, she’s keen to share the stories of producers and retailers, and highlight the issues that need talking about from our sector.

Claire heads up our press office and gets the Guild and our mission out there with the wider world.

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Coming with data & insight experience built up over a career at some of the UK’s biggest newspapers, plus a more recent immersion into independent food retail and produce growing, makes Lindsay ideally placed as one of the people quietly taking the Guild forward into the next stage of our development.

Lindsay helps us better understand our audiences, ensuring we can deliver the most useful range of activities for all the people and businesses that we interact with.

A familiar face at the Guild and to our World Cheese Awards judges, Ophelia has been a World Cheese Awards team leader for the past four years and supported the entry team in Dorset in 2022. Ophelia joined us full time after a couple of years with the operations team behind Speciality & Fine Food Fair. As part of the operations and marketing team, you’ll find Ophelia supporting the running of the judging rooms and assisting Jenna and Frances with the marketing and communications across the business,

Zara transfers her substantial skills built up in the healthcare publishing sector to our events and awards schemes.  Part of the operations team, she skillfully project manages the event operations at some of our flagship events, in particular the Great Taste Golden Forks and World Cheese Awards.

Sepi is likely to be the first person to welcome you if you’re joining us for Great Taste judging at No. 42 in London and will be sure to make you instantly feel at ease and part of the team.

She plays a key role in recruiting and coordinating our judging panels for Great Taste and World Cheese Awards, with the important job of balancing our judging teams and bringing new expertise onto the panel, as well as running No. 42 as a venue for other events.

Part of our operations team in Gillingham, Chris is responsible for the mammoth task of sorting products into judging sessions behind the scenes and working with our worldwide logistics partners to ensure products arrive safely, are stored correctly and delivered to judges in top condition for tasting. Chris also loves finding new producers who are interested in entering Great Taste and World Cheese Awards.

Wearing many hats, Chloë plays a key role in the administration behind both of our awards schemes, looking after the team handling entrant enquiries and coordinating judges for our Great Taste judging in Gillingham, Dorset.  She also takes the lead on looking after our Guild of Fine Food producer members, ensuring they can access benefits and organising opportunities such as member webinars throughout the year. A talented photographer, Chloë also assists with capturing content for our social media channels, occasionally moonlighting as a hawk-eyed proofreader for our publications.

Thomas will be one of your first points of contact when you ring the Guild or email for advice or help with award entries.  Coming from a food and drink retail background, he’s swapped the warehouse and delivery vans for helping entrants with their queries and ensuring all tasting samples are entered correctly to give them the best possible change in Great Taste and the World Cheese Awards.  Thomas also helps with the distribution and logistics for our new cheese magazine, Wedge.

One of the first people entrants and members speak to when you call or email for advice or support, Jos joined the team with plenty of administrative experience at L’Oréal, along with a few stints supporting the Taste of the West team. Efficient and well-versed in the challenges that face small food producers, Jos is on hand to help solve your questions and queries.

Our events don’t run well without the maticulous organisation behind the scenes, of which James is key part.  Keeping our warehouse in tip-top condition, as well as receiving deliveries for our Great Taste judging in Dorset and getting us packed up for World Cheese Awards, James also makes sure all our entrants ordering labels for their Great Taste and World Cheese Awards wins receive these quickly so they can get on them on their products.

Tamsin looks after our retail members and Retail Cheese training.  She is the person to contact if you’re thinking about joining the Guild of Fine Food or sending your team to learn new skills to help sell more cheese.

If you’re an independent retailer not yet receiving Fine Food Digest, or you’d like to find out more about the Guild and how the membership benefits might help you to run your business, please get in touch.

A most tenacious and polite accounts assistant, Julie is our chaser of money (we all need them, please be kind to her). She is also one of our longest serving team members.

Responsible for design on our publications and promotional artwork, Mark started his graphics journey in music magazines, record labels, branding and packaging design and at BBC Worldwide.

If you’re sending in an advert for one of our magazines, Mark works closely with the sales team to execute the magazine layouts and place your artwork.

He gets his creative inspiration while cycling through the rural lanes of Dorset & Wiltshire.

Never one to miss a story or photo opportunity, Emma manages our social media channels with aplomb. Following all our Guild events – sometimes in person and sometimes behind the scenes, Emma’s thumbs are working overtime to ensure not a moment or comment is missed.

The man with a calculator who keeps a watchful eye on our management accounts. Ashley has a wealth of experience that he brings to the Guild of Fine Food and ensures we all stay on track.

Our founder and chairman, without whom the Guild of Fine Food would not exist, has dedicated 40 years to the food & drink industry (longer if you include his first job at 13 in Shaftesbury’s finest grocery store!). Bob’s hard work, good ideas and contribution is much more than to just our organisation, it is to the entire food & drink trade in the UK and beyond.

The Guild of Fine Food press office supports PR and communications for all our activities, including Great Taste and World Cheese Awards.

This is your first point of call for any image or comment requests from the Guild of Fine Food team. Managed by our communications and marketing team, we help journalists get the message out about well-made food & drink, and the people who produce it, out to those who sell it, make it and enjoy it.

Contact the press office