DORSET Magazine is hosting the inaugural Dorset Magazine Food, Drink & Farming Awards.

Dorset is well known for its excellent produce and the passionate people working within the industry. The awards are designed to showcase the heroes in restaurants, pubs, hotels, farms, shops and factories.

Mark Hartstone, chef proprietor of The Restaurant at La Fosse in Cranborne, discovered he was a finalist in the Chef of the Year category, as voted by his diners.

Helen Stiles, editor of Dorset Magazine said: “The Dorset Magazine Food, Drink and Farming Awards will celebrate the extraordinary men and women – farmers, chefs, bakers, butchers, tea shop owners to name but a few – who work so hard to put Dorset on the culinary map.”

Mark Hartstone, chef proprietor said: “I am absolutely delighted to be a finalist as ‘Chef of the Year’. I am up against two other great chefs, so just to be a finalist is a great accomplishment. Emmanuelle and I look forward to the awards ceremony, as so many great Dorset chefs, producers and restaurateurs will all be under the same roof.”