The Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant Awards 2012 and the Alto Top 100 Places to Eat Cape Town 2012 have once again raised the issue of how restaurants should be judged.   Should the country’s top restaurants and their chefs be judged by their peers, a panel of chefs, or should they be judged by the restaurant patrons by sms or e-mail, as one would vote for Idols?

For restaurants to be judged fairly:

*  The rules and judging criteria must be clearly specified.  Eat Out has these on the website.  The rules are that the restaurants eligible for the Top 10 Restaurant awards must have operated for a year (it does not address the chef change at all, interestingly!), the owners and chef should show a passion for their businesses, they must show a ‘dedication to uplifting the industry’ (but this aspect has never been spoken about by Eat Out, and is not clear as to what it refers to), chefs should source quality ingredients, which is pretty obvious, and every aspect of the business should be consistent and excellent (consistency can only be judged if the restaurant is visited by the judges more than once). The maths does not add up when it comes to Eat Out‘s judging criteria, when under its Food category of 70 points (out of 100) they also evaluate value for money (5 points), and wines (out of 10 points), in addition to menu composition and seasonality (15 points), presentation (15 points), and taste (25 points).

By contrast, the Alto Top 100 Places to Eat Cape Town 2012 (what a mouthful!), has no judging criteria nor rules specified other than that the restaurants be located in Cape Town, the method of compiling the 100 restaurant shortlist, and then the Top 20 shortlist, not being specified. One had to vote by e-mail, and could only vote once. ‘They focus on a broad range of establishments, and not just the fine dining ones’,the organisers did qualify.

*   As much as consistency is a criterion for restaurant performance, so too should be the strict application of the rules.  This year Eat Out editor Abigail Donnelly awarded Top 20 status to The Pot Luck Club, and was accepted by Chef and owner Luke Dale-Roberts, when both knew that the restaurant had not been open for a full twelve months.  Only when we wrote about it on this blog was The Pot Luck Club removed from the Top 20 Finalist list.  Chef changes, with the promoted chef having worked alongside the departed chef for more than a year, have been treated differently for The Roundhouse and Grande Provence, in allowing/not allowing them on the Top 20 Finalist list.  The Alto Top 100 Cape Town Places to Eat Cape Town 2012 may gain credibility if it were to keep its sponsors (the same sponsor changes have plagued its ‘100 Women 100 Wines’), who complain that they get no or negative publicity from their association with the events!

*   the judging panel should be local, as Chef George Jardine of Jordan Restaurant pleaded from the stage when he received his 3rd place plaque from Eat Out editor Abigail Donnelly on Sunday evening, to applause!  He questioned why a ‘foreign’ judge had to be used. We know that Jos Baker and Anna Trapido were involved in the previously named Fleur du Cap Top 100 Cape Town Restaurants in 2011, but their names were not mentioned for the selection of the Top 20 list for this year’s Alto Top 100 Places to Eat Cape Town 2012 Awards.  The question remains – how big a panel should evaluate the Top 20 shortlist, and the final list of Top 10 restaurants and their ranking.  In the past Mrs Donnelly had three co-judges (Pete Goffe Wood, Arnold Tanzer, and Anna Trapido).   As with all competitions, the smart chefs and restaurants had photographs of Mrs Donnelly and her judging panel in their kitchens, so the restaurants usually know when they are being evaluated. Despite UK ex-Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant Awards judge Bruce Palling using a false name when he booked by e-mail, many restaurants recognised him when he arrived, and greeted him by his real name, as they had seen his photograph and followed his Tweets.  The controversy surrounding Palling and the break down in the relationship between him and Eat Out did not do the restaurant awards any good!

*   what limits are there to gifts and other means of influencing the judges, is a question that needs to be asked.  We know that Palling stayed at the Cellars Hohenhort and Mount Nelson hotels, for example, which meant that they had his real name for the accommodation booking, and therefore knew he was coming to judge their restaurants, thus having a longer time to influence their VIP guest.  While Mrs Donnelly is known to refuse any offers to have her meal comped, and dutifully pays her way and tips well, she does not refuse the spoiling of her family, when she is invited to spend the night or weekend where a hotel is linked to the restaurant, her children usually being the focus of attention for the spoiling, we have heard in Franschhoek.  One could question the ethics of this, from both the restaurant offering it, and Mrs Donnelly accepting it.  Mrs Donnelly even does hotel evaluations for her hosts when she has stayed, we have heard, which is unfair, as she has come to judge the restaurant!

*   if different restaurant competitions judge restaurants, should the results be the same, one could ask. While the Alto Top 100 Places to Eat focused on Cape Town only, the Eat Out list is national, even if 80% of the top restaurants are from the Cape.  The two restaurant award Top 20 lists had Bizerca, La Colombe, The Test Kitchen, The Roundhouse, The Greenhouse, and Planet Restaurant in common, but the Top 10 lists only shared The Test Kitchen and La Colombe.  The lack of focus in what the Alto Top 100 Places to Eat Cape Town 2012 (the name says how broad it is) stands for shows in its Top 10 list, a mix of fine-dining restaurants and brasseries, bistros and casual eateries, thereby losing credibility and not being taken seriously, especially as the results were announced just five days before the Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant Awards.  JP Rossouw’s annual list of his top rated 3-star restaurants has not yet been released, and it will be interesting to see how his top restaurant list compares to that of Eat Out. Surely the SA Chef’s Association, the Chaine de Rotisseurs, or a combination thereof should be used to evaluate our top restaurants!  Each of the two awards organisers have no experience in running restaurants, and may not be perfect judges for the awards, especially if they are sole judges!  Perhaps the Platter evaluation is a model, with various reviewers reviewing the mass of wines, and earmarking outstanding potential 5 star candidates.  These are then tasted blind by a panel of judges, and the results are independently audited. Eat Out should consider using a similar system of evaluation.

*   While Eat Out claims to involve the public (‘126000 monthly users’, according to the Cape Times today) in its choice of Finalist restaurants, they are not quantified, as they only contain a comment.  The Alto Top 100 Places to Eat Cape Town 2012 is supposedly based on consumer votes only.

*   each evaluated restaurant should receive feedback from the judges, we feel, so that they can grow from the experience, and aspire to do even better the next year, especially those that did not make Top 10.

*  links to restaurants, be it consultancy relationships Mrs Donnelly appears to still be having to some restaurants such as Makaron Restaurant, or freebie meals (Alto Top 100 Places to Eat organisers Clare ‘Mack’ Mc Loughlin and her husband Eamon get all their meals at Societi Bistro for free) must be declared!  Both restaurant competitions have not been honest, in not declaring their affiliations.

We would be interested in hearing the views of our readers about the fair evaluation of our country’s Top 10 restaurants, either on our blog or addressed to whalecot@iafrica.com.

POSTSCRIPT 7/8:   Über controversial Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant 2012 international judge Bruce Palling has left the Wall Street Journal Europe and has joined Perowne Charles Communications to set up its food and drink division.  ‘Palling will lead PCC’s account team representing well-known food and drinks brands, Michelin-star chefs as well as new launches, with clients including Epicure at Le Bristol Paris and Aziamendi at Iniala Beach House in Phuket‘.  Funny is reading the agency’s blogpost about Palling’s appointment, clearly written by him and how he quotes his Eat Out excursion in his ‘CV’!

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com   Twitter:@WhaleCottage