Judges all love our olives

They taste great: Carl and Nikki with their award-winning olives

A DELPH business is celebrating after winning a prestigious 2011 Great Taste Award.

Carl Woodhead and Nikki Hill, the owners of Oliviccio, have been presented with a coveted one-star Gold Great Taste Award for their hand-stuffed sun-dried tomato olives.

The pair, who live in Dobcross, dress and stuff olives with fresh herbs and fresh ingredients and their range includes homemade houmous, tzatziki, pestos, tapenades and rose delight at their unit on Gatehead Business Park in Delph New Road.

They also stock a wide variety of quality antipasti items such as feta stuffed red-chilli peppers, dolmades, gigantes, Italian chargrilled artichokes, sun-dried and semi-dried tomatoes, spanakopita, baklava, ciappe and Mediterranean bar snacks.

Continental cheeses include parmigiano reggiano, picos blue, Greek feta, Cypriot halloumi, manchego, taleggio and pecorino. Most have protected-origin status.

They trade on farmers’ markets, including Uppermill and Ashton. They bought the business in November, 2007, from a woman based in Lancaster who had been selling hand-made stuffed olives for 20 years.

“We were regular customers and got to know her quite well. When she mentioned it was time to think about giving up we made an offer,” said Carl, who continues to work as a building surveyor.

Nikki, formerly a graphic designer in the newspaper industry, has been full-time with Oliviccio for a while and, if the business — in which the pair have to date invested around £40,000 — continues to thrive, Carl should be full-time by the end of the year.

He said: “Winning a Great Taste Award recognises the hard work and dedication that goes into making superb food and drink.

“Our sun-dried tomato olives are stuffed by hand with pieces of sun-dried tomato, then dressed in a special tomato and caper sauce — they are easily one of our most popular olives and it is a real thrill for them to be recognised as award-winning.”

Organised by the Guild of Fine Food, The Great Taste Awards are now in their 18th year.

A total of 7,481 products were entered from 1,600 companies for the 2011 and 350 experts took 34 days to blind taste all the entries and decide which entries would achieve the coveted one, two and three-star gold awards.