Tebay Motorway Service Station has gained a top food award – the British Academy of Gastronomes’ annual Grand Prix of Gastronomy. The Grand Prix is

awarded to anyone or anything that has done most in the preceding 12 months to improve further the quality of food in the UK.

Previous winners include the Prince of Wales for reviving the interest in British mutton and Michel and Albert Roux for raising standards in British restaurants.

The site, located on the M6 in Cumbria, reportedly made a big impression on Egon Ronay, who founded the British Academy of Gastronomes, when he visited it many years ago. According to the BBC, Ronay said: "I first visited the services for the first survey of motorway service areas, at least 25 years ago. And I remember I was struck right away by the quality of everything I had. Nothing was mass produced. The bread was homemade and I can still remember to this day there was a wonderful ptotato soup, clearly homemade."

Sarah Dunning, chief executive of Westmorland Co. Ltd, the Cumbrian company which owns the Tebay site, said: “Our policy is to sustain local produce and make a constructive impact on the growth of local communities.