Judging Criteria
Festival Awards Criteria
Official Festival Awards Criteria 2010
The first key point to make is that establishments can only be judged within the standards that could be expected of them or by their own aspirations. This makes giving the awards more difficult, but the diversity of Mancunian restaurants means that applying a blanket criteria when judging a French, Greek or Thai restaurant together would be a farce, to judge a big bustling bar in the same way as an intimate one, would also be silly.
Thus the guidelines below are simply guidelines - especially in an age where the boundaries between restaurant/bar and bar/pub and pub/restaurant grow ever more indistinct. The winning venue from 2009 can’t win until the second year after they won – 2011. This make the awards more interesting - gives them variety.
MFDF would recommend that judges also take commitment to Festival themes into account. For example, does the chef/venue pay particular attention to the use of locally sourced ingredients? Does the organisation champion Fairtrade.
Finally, a key element introduced into to this year’s Awards criteria is accessibility. Manchester is an inclusive, world class City. The diversity of the City is what makes it so great. In the same way that restaurants would not exclude people of any ethnic backgrounds, it is also expected that they don’t exclude people with disabilities.
Following liaison with Manchester City Council, and the Manchester Disabled People’s Access Group, MFDF have introduced this as an award criteria for consideration by the judges. Rather than have its own award, this factor will be taken into account across all venues considered for nomination. We of course accept that these are food and drink awards, but like any other standard that comes into play in deciding whether a venue deserves an MFDF Award Nomination, accessibility will now be considered. Venues may be marked down if they don’t make any of the reasonable adjustments expected. This can include elements as small as provision of large print menus and spacing of tables.
Skills and Training issues and healthy eating have their own dedicated awards, but might still come into play to the experience as a whole. All of these issues are also key points to consider for the Outstanding Achievement Award.
