All pictures by Hermione McCosh www.hermionemccosh.com
When traveling, that little pot of marmalade that comes with your breakfast at airports and hotels, which sometimes remain ignored or unopened is just the tip of a massive wealth of flavours and history generated by marmalade.
Marmalade is adopted from Europe and was adapted over time to its current incarnation.
In its early form it was made with quince and more of a paste than the bright colorful jelly it is now.
It takes its name from the Portuguese, it was a product made from a quince called marmelada.
An early English cookery book from the 1600s has the first written recipe to include oranges. Trade with Spain, brought the Seville orange, its still the go to citrus for most.
So many varieties grace our tables; its popularity has also spread around the world continuously evolving with each recipe and the choice of fruit and location, from grapefruit to yuzu.
Dalemain is a famous country house in Penrith Cumbria they have their own brand of marmalade. Which enjoys a global presence.
In their efforts to promote marmalade in all its various forms, the founder Jane Hasall-McCosh launched the Marmalade awards in 2005 starting with just 50 entrants.
Now in its 14th year it brings in thousands of entries from all over the world .
The UK 2019 Marmalade Awards & Festival will take place at Dalemain Mansion on Saturday 16th March
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At an event on January 17th at the Japanese embassy hosted by the Ambassador to London, His Excellency Mr Koji Tsuruoka The Mayor of Yawatahama Mr Ichiro Oshiro,
And Awards founder Jane Hasell-McCosh.
This was to promote the inaugural Japanese marmalade awards.
Everybody spoke of their excitement at the prospect of forging new international bonds through the awards.
The Japanese public have a keen interest in the U.K and buy a lot of British goods including marmalade. There seems to be a huge groundswell of marmalade making in japan hence this competition just to accommodate the interested entrants.
Yawatahama was the first choice of location as it is central to Japans citrus growing area; there are at least 20 varieties of citrus and slight deviations in each variety I believe there are almost 30 types of yuzu.
A perfect location, for marvellous Marmalades.
The main UK sponsor for the awards is Fortnum and Mason and they will be involved in choosing a winner in the Japanese event, the resulting marmalade will be sold across japan and in Fortnum’s flagship store in Piccadilly.
Its not all about Marmalade the awards generate funds which go to local hospices for palliative care, in 2018 £22000 was raised from the events in the year.
Dalemain has been working hard to spread the joy of marmalade creating a wider audience around the world. They have been constantly rewarded with new flavours and textures in each competition the judges are always surprised with innovation and tastes presented to them.
There will be ten judges seven of who are Japanese one from Sichuan and two from the United Kingdom
This year will no doubt present a greater challenge with so many varieties probably not tasted before by the two English judges Michael Perry and Dan Lepard.
Dan Is an old friend and Chef we worked together at St John 25 years ago.
He was a passionate baker and pushed hard for the chef and owner to let him bake bread on the premises’ for the restaurant. They succumbed to his enthusiasm, and now St john bakery is a well-established favorite in London.
He also went on to write books on the subject the best known is the hand made loaf almost a love letter to bread, his well researched and written book sold over 2 million copies. He also writes a weekly column for the Guardian and a monthly for the Sydney morning herald.
In 2018 on a second visit to Japan he ran the kitchens at Mitsukoshi in Tokyo for British week. baking and producing afternoon cream teas. In his time there and travelling throughout the country truly ignited a passion for japan and in particular for Ehime prefecture.
He saw the wondrous diversity of citrus that is available.
He will soon be back to help in the judging of the Japanese awards in May, and we all look forward to tasting the winner from the inaugural event.
Perhaps its time to try some Marmalade!