Nomination Process

• Restaurants and brands self-nominated online between Sunday 3rd Feb and Thursday 4th April 2019 and were reviewed by our editorial panel.
• Restaurants and brands cannot pay to be nominated.
• Restaurants and brands cannot be added after online nominations have closed.
• No financial cost to nominees is incurred for participation or success.
• No financial compensation, or any other benefit is offered to the editorial panel, judges or auditing company.
• Employees and representatives of BBC Good Food Middle East or CPI Media Group are not eligible to act as a judge for the Chef of the Year Competition.

Voting

• Voting is open to the public from Sunday 9th June until Sunday 3rd November 2019.
• The top 10 nominees with the most votes in each category will be announced Sunday 1st September and consumer voting will continue.
• Voting Closes Sunday 3rd November.
• Winners will be announced at The BBC Good Food ME Magazine Awards ceremony on Wednesday 27th November.
• To vote, you must either create a registration profile on our awards website or login to the website using Facebook.
• Voters can only cast 1 vote in each category.
• Voters are not required to cast a vote in every category.
• Voters can only register once per email ID.
• Votes are checked for any potential duplication or falsification via email ID and IP address. Any found to be false are to be deleted from our voting system, the Restaurant or Brand will be notified immediately and may be disqualified from the awards process entirely.
• Employees and representatives of BBC Good Food Middle East or CPI Media Group are not eligible to vote.
• Voting is not open for the following categories;

BBC Good Food Middle East Chef of The Year;

• Four chefs are selected from restaurants nominated in our Fine Dining categories across Dubai and Abu Dhabi as of 1st September.
• The four chefs will then take part in a cooking competition on 3rd November at The Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management.

Restaurant of The Year - Abu Dhabi and Restaurant of The Year - Dubai & Northern Emirates;

• The winners of these two categories are selected by gaining the most votes in their respective Fine Dining Categories.

Voters Prize

The prize is a six-night stay with Villas by Taru- Sri Lanka worth DHS20,279.

The prize includes;

• 2 Nights on All Inclusive basis at the Taru Villas - The Long House (Premier Room for 2) Included in the Long House package is the visit to Lunugana/Bawa Gardens.
• 2 Night on All Inclusive basis at the Taru Villas - Yala (Full Villa for 2)
• 2 Nights on Half Board Basis at Taru Villas - Rampart Street or Taru Villas - Lighthouse Street (Sea View or Super Room for 2)
• Transfers from the Colombo International Airport to Bentota, Bentota to Yala, Yala to Galle Fort and Galle Fort to the Airport

The holiday can be redeemed during the following dates;

• 1st September - 30th November 2019
• 16th April to 30th November 2020
• All voters, if they follow the steps listed on the voting page are eligible to win the holiday.
• The competition closes when voting for The BBC Good Food Middle East Magazine Awards closes, which is at 5pm on Sunday 3rd November 2019.
• One winner will be drawn at random and be announced on our social media channels the day after voting closes (4th November 2019)
• If the winner is not contactable after 7 days, the prize will be allocated to the second person drawn.
• Employees, representatives and relatives of BBC Good Food Middle East and CPI Media Group are not eligible to win this prize.

Chef of The Year Competition and Award

• The four competing chefs are selected based on their restaurant having received the top four highest votes across our Fine Dining Restaurant Dubai and Abu Dhabi categories as of 1st September.
• The four chefs will then take part in the competition on 3rd November at The Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management.
• Competition Format: The competition is a mystery box cook-off followed by a blind tasting judged by a panel of industry experts. Chefs will be given 30 minutes to plan and 2.5 hours to prepare 3 courses (starter, main & dessert) using a minimum of 2 mystery box ingredients per course.
• Judging: This will be a blind tasting event; judges will not be aware which Chef has created which dishes. As such we will also have a kitchen moderator who will share their feedback with the judging panel based on their performance in the kitchen, which includes;
  • Kitchen conduct, respect for equipment and other chefs
  • Technique used in the kitchen
  • Health and safety
• Scoring: There is a maximum of 150 points to be obtained. For each recipe, the competing Chefs will be scored points out of 10 by each of the judges on the following criteria:
  • Creativity
  • Use of Ingredients
  • Technique
  • Presentation
  • Taste
• The following penalty points will be deducted from scores if Chefs do not meet the below requirements:
  • 0.5 points per minute over the allotted time, per course
  • 10 points if the minimum number of mystery box ingredients requested are not met, per course
  • 25 points if the minimum number of portions requested are not met, per course
• Mobile phones are prohibited throughout the competition.
• Chefs can bring up to 3 specialty equipment items to use throughout the competition.
• Chefs will be doing the challenge alone. They are not permitted to bring along a cooking assistant, and venue representatives are not to assist with the cooking challenge.
• Any Chef caught cheating in any way may be disqualified from the competition.
• The winner is announced only on the night of The BBC Good Food ME Magazine Awards.
• The winner of the BBC Good Food ME Chef of the Year competition will win a 3-night stay at the Mövenpick Resort & Spa Jimbaran Bali for 2 adults and 1 child inclusive of breakfast and lunch to be used by 1st May 2020.
• The winning chef will be required to be part of the judging panel at our 2019 Chef of the Year competition.
• The winning chef may be required to be involved in BBC Good Food ME events during 2019.
• Employees and representatives of BBC Good Food Middle East or CPI Media Group are not eligible to act as a judge for the Chef of the Year Competition.

Winner Selection

• Restaurants and brands cannot pay to win an award.
• Award winners are selected by receiving the highest number of votes in their category.
• The votes are counted and verified by our editorial panel and an independent auditor.
• Award winners will only be revealed at the awards ceremony itself not beforehand.
• The Awards Ceremony is scheduled to take place on 27th November 2019.
• The winners list will be published on our website on 28th November 2019.