You're Bacon Miso Bananas

Source: The British Sandwich & Food to Go Association

A Greencore product developer has taken the title of Sandwich Designer of the Year 2022 with a butty featuring bacon, miso, caramelised rice puffs and bananas.

The sandwich, named ‘You’re Bacon Miso Bananas’, won the accolade for creator Catherine Fleetwood after being judged the finest in the event by a panel of industry experts including M&S head of product James Newton-Brown and Gail’s Bakery managing director Marta Pogroszewska. The panel were impressed by the butty’s ‘unusual yet perfectly balanced flavour combinations’.

The Sandwich Designer of the Year winner was announced during at a gala evening at the Royal Lancaster hotel in London. The competition – which is an annual event – forms part of the British Sandwich Industry Awards, also known as the Sammies.

“Catherine’s creation demonstrated innovation at its best and while the flavours, on paper, seem unusual, when arranged together with precision and skill, what we got was an extraordinary sandwich,” said Jim Winship, director of The British Sandwich & Food to Go Association. “It was this creativity that earned Catherine the ‘best in show’ accolade.”

Fleetwood expressed her thanks to the association for hosting the competition, which she described as “an amazing event to be involved in”.

“I still can’t quite believe that I won the Sandwich Designer of the Year competition – it feels like a dream,” she said. “To win was just the icing on the cake, or should I say the bacon on the sandwich.”

Entrants to the competition competed over four categories for which the sandwiches were judged on their creativity, design, and technical ability and innovative use of the sponsor’s product. Category winners were then put forward for the overall title. Fleetwood’s creation topped the Danish Crown Pre-cooked Bacon category before being named the ultimate winner.

The other category winners were as follows:

• H. Smith Steamed Cooked Whole Breast Fillet category: The Oishii Sando by Susannah Montgomery, The Soho Sandwich Co

• Royal Greenland MSC Cooked and Peeled XL Cold Water Prawn category: Hello Seaside, Sam Tebbatt, Melton Foods

• Mission Foods Sage & Onion Tortilla category: Making a Pig of Yourself, Gary McDowell, Deli Lites.