It's Official: We're the Best Brownie in the Midlands!

I used to really enjoy hearing foodie writer Nigel Barden on Radio 2 back in the day, with Chris Evans and Simon Mayo so it was a real shock when the phone rang the other day at home and it was Nigel himself - who I don't know and have never met - on the line.

It turned out that we had been nominated, without our knowledge, for the Britannia Artisan Food Collection, a list of local food heroes from around the entire British Isles curated personally by Nigel himself. We'd been selected for the Midlands region and Nigel, reasonably enough, wanted to taste the Brownies personally to help him come up with his shortlist of three for the region.

I sent him the Sour Cherry soaked in Cherry Brandy as well as our Double Chocolate, which got us a Great Taste Award in our early days and which gave us such a burst of confidence as a new business.

When these things come out of the blue, you don't expect to hear much more about them, but I was absolutely blown away when Nigel phoned again a week or so later to say that he'd tasted the brownies and to make sure I listened to his Britannia Artisan Food Collection podcast which was about to go live.

Sure enough, from all those myriad food producers in the region - cheesemakers and lamb breeders, brewers and artisan gins, he'd given us runner-up spot for the whole Midlands region and said unbelievably nice things about The Brownie Company on his podcast. Thanks again, Nigel!