HE'S already the supreme sausage champion of Hampshire, but now Bishopstoke master butcher Les Smith has mashed the opposition again on the way to more sizzling successes.
Back in February, Les swept the board at The Great Hampshire Sausage Competition at Winchester's Sparsholt College, beating the
challenge of more than 30 butchers from across the county to clinch six gold awards and three trophies.
The following month, 60-year-old Les scooped three gold awards at the National Sausage Competition staged by the National Federation of Meat and Food Traders.
In August he struck gold again in the Great Tastes Awards of Great Britain and is now waiting to see if the French-style pork sausage - which is completely gluten and preservative free - will win him another award from Fortnum and Masons.
Les, who started taking part in sausage competitions in 1988 and has since scooped more than 80 trophies, also picked up a bronze in the Great Tastes competition for a smoky bacon flavoured banger.
But despite his success over the years - which has also brought him international recognition - he does not intend to sit back on his laurels.
His Riverside butcher's shop already offers more than 70 varieties of sausages, ranging from South Coast Bishopstoke Bangers - described as a "pork sausage with a mild continental flavour" - to pork, strawberry and brandy, Arabian lamb and kangaroo.
But he said: "I'm still developing different ones all the time. What we are developing is a bigger range of gluten-free sausages because everybody is on the health kick now."
Sausages from Bishopstoke go all over the country - especially since the family butcher's shop went on the Internet under the www.sausages4all.co.uk address - and customers even drop in to take the delicacies abroad.
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