FINDING A GOOD restaurant got a bit easier thanks to the Santa Rita Irish Restaurant Awards 2012, which took place last night in the Burlington Hotel.
Almost 700 people from Ireland’s restaurant industry attended the awards, which crowned the top eateries in the country in a range of categories.
The main winners were:
President of the Restaurants Association of Ireland, Brian Fallon, said that entries to the awards have doubled since last year, with 6,000 nominations throughout the categories. He added:
Our industry has annual sales in excess of €2 billion and we employ 64,000 people. In fact, we are the largest employer within the Irish Tourism Sector.
Nominations for the awards are made by readers of the Sunday Independent LIFE Magazine and members of the Restaurants Association of Ireland.
The awards process runs from the beginning of February 2012 until 14 May 2012 and the selection process to become a county winner in the main category involves two stages.
A chef/restaurant/hotel/gastro pub must be nominated by a reader of the Sunday Independent or a member of The Restaurant Association of Ireland. In early March, regional judging panels made up of industry experts meet to assess the nominations. The results from the judging panel, which makes up 60 per cent of the overall vote, plus the results from the reader’s nominations, which makes up 40 per cent of the vote, are combined and then reviewed by KPMG to give an overall winner.
County winners and the Dublin shortlist then go on to compete for the regional and All Ireland title.
As well as the main awards, there were industry awards in the following categories:
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