Introducing the Chefs’ Choice Awards

By Chefs' Choice Awards

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Introducing the Chefs’ Choice Awards

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Calling all foodservice companies: the new Chefs’ Choice Awards are your chance to show the restaurant industry that you are best in class. 

Are you a foodservice supplier or manufacturer that produces the best foods for restaurants but never gets any recognition for it? Then the new Chefs’ Choice Awards launched by Restaurant magazine, The Morning Advertiser, The Grocer and Food Manufacture, are just the thing for you.

Chefs’ Choice is an exciting new set of awards created to showcase the great work of foodservice suppliers, from wholesalers through to manufacturers. The awards – judged by chefs for chefs – aim to shine a spotlight on operators that can demonstrate quality, innovation, creativity, value and great taste delivery in their frozen, fresh, chilled or ambient products. It will give all category winners and entrants achieving
a Highly Rated standard, the use of respected endorsement logos on packaging and in all marketing – for free.

You have asked us to produce and run these awards to enhance the sector – the product credibility, the development work and the value delivered to thousands of customers in pubs and bars, restaurants, hotels, cafés and leisure and hospitality outlets. These awards will allow businesses in the foodservice supply chain to compete head-to-head in core product categories and secure a competitive advantage via independent assessment of eating quality and taste.

How it works

If you are a foodservice product manufacturer, foodservice delivered wholesaler, cash and carry wholesaler or restaurant chain – these are awards are here help deliver business wins and validate customer choice. They are designed to heighten market awareness and provide a promotional platform.

Judged by a panel of industry professionals, these awards provide the opportunity for all suppliers – fresh and frozen, chilled and ambient – to stand out and gain extensive positive marketing exposure to gain new and reinforce existing customer relationships. The judging panel will comprise chefs, nutritionists, food technologists and end users such as pub landlords and restaurateurs, meaning product excellence is recognised by the people who really matter to your business.

There are 27 categories, from across ambient, chilled, fresh, frozen and part-baked – including Cheese and Dairy Products; Finished Desserts and Gateau; Preserves; Vegetarian Ready Meals and Portions and Hot Beverages (see Chefs’ Choice: the categories, below), to name but a few – in which you can enter your product or products. These will then be prepared and cooked by qualified chefs in a professional kitchen following portion guidance and recommended prep, serving suggestions and cooking times.

The judging panel will put each entry through its paces on a stringent range of agreed criteria, including appearance, aroma, flavour, texture and value per portion, plus level of innovation.

They will then assess the product on how useful the packaging and instructions were. The quality assessment will be undertaken ‘brand free’ with the packaging not visible.

Chefs’ Choice will independently validate product quality and taste and will enable all of the category winners and all of the ‘highly rated’ entrants to use – for free – the high-profile logo endorsement supported by Restaurant, The Grocer, The Morning Advertiser and Food Manufacture media brands. Winning or securing a ‘highly rated’ standard will independently validate quality, taste, value and innovation.

How to enter

Entering the Chefs’ Choice Awards is easy. You will need to put forward a finished food product that is ambient, chilled, fresh, frozen or part-baked to take part, in one of the 27 different categories. It costs £475 + VAT per entry, with a deadline of Friday 18 November.

To enter and for more information visit www.chefschoiceawards.co.uk

Winners will then be announced at a Champagne reception at London’s Haymarket Hotel on Tuesday 7 March, 2017. On this night, VIPs and entrants, judges and colleagues will gather to see who has secured the winner and highly rated status.

Benefits of winning

There are numerous benefits of being named as a finalist, highly rated or indeed winner in the Chefs’ Choice Awards. Not only does it mean that your products get vital endorsement from an esteemed independent judging panel that will impress current and prospective customers but winner, highly rated and finalist logos are supplied for free so that successful entrants can use them on product packing and in all marketing to customers in the food service chain to demonstrate their quality and taste.

The products will also gain recognition in market-leading brands The Grocer, Restaurant, The Morning Advertiser and Food Manufacture, supported by William Reed Business Media, as well as at the awards ceremony itself.

If you want chefs and the restaurant industry as a whole to recognise the high quality of your products then enter the Chefs’ Choice Awards, and show the eating-out sector why yours are the must-serve products that they can’t live without.

Chefs’ Choice: the categories

There are 27 categories in which you can enter a finished product or products. These are:

  • Bread and morning goods
  • Preserves (sweet)
  • Breakfast cereals (including porridge)
  • Cheese and dairy products (yoghurt/butter/spreads/cream/milk designed to be served to customers and NOT sold as an ingredient)
  • Meat (joints/portions and ready to serve hams/salami/charcuterie/pâté)
  • Poultry products (whole/portioned/coated/battered/added value)
  • Fish and shellfish (fresh/frozen/coated/battered and ready to serve (smoked salmon/trout/pâté/prawn cocktail)
  • Sweet cakes and biscuits (tray bakes/doughnuts/scones/pastries/savourycrackers)
  • Desserts and gateaux (served hot or cold)
  • Ice cream and sorbet
  • Crisps, nuts and snacks
  • Party and buffet foods (including sandwich fillers)
  • Fruit (whole/cut/tinned/frozen/chilled)
  • Vegetables (whole/diced/prepared/tinned/frozen)
  • Chilled salads (slaw/mixes/leaves)
  • Rice, pasta, grains
  • Potato (fresh/chilled/frozen/ambient/part-baked)
  • Products sold as free-from (gluten-free/dairy-free)
  • Pasta-based ready meals
  • Vegetarian ready-meals and portions
  • Ready meals (non-pasta based)
  • Savoury pies and flans
  • Soup and stock
  • Condiments (including pickles/mayonnaise/dressings/mustard/oils/vinegar)
  • Sweet and savoury sauces (mixes/ready to serve, including coulis and custard)
  • Soft drinks (juices/water/smoothies/cordials/carbonated)
  • Hot beverages (tea/coffee/hot chocolate/malts/infusions/fruit teas)

Enter today

To enter your product into the Chefs’ Choice Awards, visit www.chefschoiceawards.co.uk​ or call 01293 610422 for more details. The deadline for entries is Friday 18 November so don’t delay – enter today.

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