The winners will be announced at the Gala Awards evening on 18th May 2014 at Eat Drink Bristol Fashion.

The awards are open to all restaurants, cafes and delis within the BS postcode designation for Bristol.

Bristol residents and visitors are voting for their favourite establishment via voting slips, or online. Votes will then be counted. A shortlist of 5 from each category (10 for Best Chef, Best Restaurant and Best Front of House) will then be announced, based on number of votes cast. Neither judges nor Bristol Good Food Awards organisers will have any say on the businesses selected for shortlist, which will be purely on number of votes by the general public made via voting slips or online.

Each judge will be responsible for one or more full categories, in order to ensure

consistent of judging. For example all the contenders for ‘Best Italian’ will be visited by the same judge. Where there is cross over, or an establishment shortlisted for 2 or more awards, the relevant judges will visit together.

The shortlist will then be passed to a team of 12 judges, who will have the responsibility of judging the shortlisted entries. Shortlisted establishments will be advised that they will be visited by a mystery diner, but will not know when.

Judges will score on set criteria, laid out in the judging rules. Scores will be awarded based on set criteria, which will obviously vary, based on the category being judged, but include:

Style and variety of menu
Mood/welcome/front of house
Speed and quality of service
Family friendliness
Quality of presentation of dishes
Quality of food
Innovation/imagination
Seasonality/use of local produce
Value for money
Overall comments

Judges will then meet once judging is complete, and individual judges will present their results, which will then be discussed and approved as a panel, at which stage the final winner and highly commended will be selected.

Products will be judged within 16 different categories. To qualify for entry, producers must be within a 50 mile radius of Bristol.

The three producers in each category with the most votes will be shortlisted for tasting and judging by a panel of 10 judges. Neither judges nor Bristol Good Food Awards organisers will have any say on the products selected for shortlist, which will be purely on number of votes by the general public made via voting slips or online Producers on the shortlist will be asked to submit samples for judging. Those

shortlisted for ‘best contribution to sustainability’ and ‘best local grower’ will be judged via a written entry, which will be sent to shortlisted businesses once the voting is complete.

All products will be prepared for serving, within their categories and served blind to the judges. The judges will be aware of the names of the shortlist, but will not know the origins of the products they are tasting.

The judges will score each product on a standard set of criteria, including

appearance, texture, flavour and point of difference. Products will be discussed in the judging forum, and scores recorded.

The judges will then be shown the packaging and further points will be awarded based on style and impact of presentation and clarity of product message.

Final decisions on winners and runners up will be made by totalling scores and by a panel discussion with the judges.