In the realm of culinary geniuses, restaurants seek recognition that can push their businesses toward enduring success and popularity. A prestigious restaurant award is one of the best recognitions a restaurant owner or a professional chef can achieve.
Restaurant or takeaway awards aren’t only meant for a restaurant as a whole; a single chef or a culinary master can gain this award for his sole effort. However, different restaurant awards recognise a variety of qualifications of a restaurant or a chef.
In this article, we will share the importance of restaurant awards, how to qualify for popular restaurant awards, and three life-changing lessons from award-winning chefs.
Why Are Restaurant Awards So Important?
Restaurant awards can massively enhance your credibility. They instil trust in your customers’ minds while establishing your restaurant as a leading business in the culinary industry.
- Customer Belief: A reputable accolade in your restaurant’s name can increase the customers’ belief in your service. It will help you leave the contemporary diners and restaurants behind you in competition.
- Media Coverage: Winning a popular award is the easiest way to get local or international media coverage. The same goes for your restaurant business. The higher the accolade’s reputation, the wider coverage you get.
- Potential Investors: Your restaurant may make the cover photos of popular magazines or get viral on social media and TV channels once you’ve won the award. These are exactly the places where potential investors look out for reliable business partners to make investments.
- More Customers: Winning an award will make your restaurant stand out, and more customers will line up at your diner’s door. These new customers can help you extend your reputation and bring more business.
- Fairly Higher Prices: An award-winning restaurant can charge fairly higher prices for its food and services compared to other eateries and diners. You can revise your menu design, scale it up, and offer new prices to your loyal customers.
How to Qualify for Popular Restaurant Awards
Restaurant awards are given to qualified entities based on various criteria. You must first have enough experience and skills to take your diner to a stage of excellence. The food quality and service must be top-notch, and your customers must be glad to return to your place again and again.
Take the ARTA, or the Asian Restaurant & Takeaway Award, one of the most popular restaurant awards for South Asian restaurants and takeaway services in the United Kingdom. Awards under the ARTA category include Restaurant of the Year, Chef of the Year, Takeaway of the Year, and so on.
Other restaurant awards also award diners and takeaway services in similar categories. Below are a few vital criteria to qualify for the popular restaurant awards:
- Quality of Food: Obviously, the foods you prepare and serve make the biggest impression on your customers. If you can make a lasting impression on them with your culinary speciality, its presentation, and texture, their feedback and reviews can put you ahead in the competition.
- Quality of Service: Apart from your dishes, your service matters a lot in deciding whether your diner is a favourable place for the customers or not. If your customers aren’t happy with your serving, time management, menu design, behaviour, etc., qualifying for a restaurant award will become more difficult.
- Ingredients: Your dishes must consist of appropriate ingredients. They must be fresh, organic, and stay true to the taste. If your ingredients don’t add to the taste and aroma of a particular dish, it will be hard to qualify for a restaurant award.
- Value for Money: Customers don’t hold back from paying higher if the food is worth it. So, you must concentrate on preparing and serving dishes that give your customers a wholesome experience. They must get the real value for the money they’re paying for.
- Popular & Reliable Reviews: Today, online reviews play a vital role in increasing or decreasing the reputation of a restaurant. Reviews from Tripadvisor, Google Reviews, Yelp, etc., can promote your restaurant’s service and food quality among customers and judges.
- Judgement by Top Chefs or Culinary Specialists: Once you register with an award organisation under a certain award category, your qualifications, as mentioned above, will be reviewed by a judging panel. They might examine additional criteria to finally decide whether you can make it to the final and get the desired award or not.
Three Great Lessons from Award-Winning Chefs
Learning about the experiences and habits of accomplished chefs will really enlighten the path of aspiring restaurants and chefs. These lessons will not only motivate you to excel in your service but also may help you win a prestigious restaurant award in future.
Let’s hear it from the top three chefs themselves:
David Higgs, Owner of Marble
The renowned award-winning chef David Higgs has a core principle of Mise en place, which means ‘everything has its place’ in French. It’s all about discipline and the art of preparation.
David practises advanced arrangements of ingredients and supplies to avoid any crisis in unprecedented situations.
David’s advice is:
“To be lucky, you need to do the work to be in the right place at the right time.”
Gordon Ramsay, International Chef & Restaurateur
One of the most popular figures in the culinary industry, Gordon Ramsay, has not only accomplished notable things in his field, but also has influenced so many professional cooks or chefs who aspire to be like him.
Gordon motivates you to become a perfectionist. But he also emphasises working on your personal strengths.
One of the most crucial lessons from the winner of seventeen Michelin Star awards himself is:
“Know your customers. Cook within the vicinity you are in and don’t start reaching too far too soon.”
Kwame Onwuachi
The Award-winning chef Kwame Onwuachi inspires you to reflect on your own perception and explore the world for greater possibilities. He inspires you to focus more on your mental, spiritual, and emotional health.
One of the greatest lessons he has learned in his life and shared is:
“We only have one life to live, so live your life to the fullest every single day.”
Final Thoughts
We hope our list of three of the most prestigious restaurant awards will help you accomplish your goals in the culinary industry. Moreover, it should make you responsible for impacting a greater community.
Besides, the life lessons shared by the three renowned chefs must inspire you to be more organised, meticulous, and creative in your culinary craft. Share your thoughts on these lessons, or point out which lesson has inspired you the most.
