Introducing the YEP's food and drink Oliver Awards for 2020

Staff from the city's bars and restaurants enjoy a night out at last year's Oliver Awards.

It is the perfect time of year for seasonal ingredients, new food flavours and just a good excuse to swap the beer gardens and roof terraces for the city’s finest eateries and restaurant dining rooms.

And so, with that, we launch the 12th Yorkshire Evening Post Oliver Awards – which celebrates the achievements of the best in the business among the Leeds food and drink scene.

For one night, we provide the food and drink while the hard-working staff of the city’s bars, restaurants, pubs and cafes have a night off, let their hair down and enjoy the action as we unveil the winners of 16 hotly contested categories which features the sought after Best Chef award and the Outstanding Contribution award.

The team from Salvo's won the Outstanding Contribution category in the 2019 awards.

A few things have changed since last year and we have introduced and re-worked a few categories.

They include an award for Best Speciality, which incorporates vegan, vegetarian and seafood; Best Brunch, as this is a hot favourite among the Leeds socialites; Best Local Produce, as we seek to forage out those food producers who in turn are doing the same with home-grown ingredients and those to be found on the doorstep; Best Family Friendly place to eat; and Sustainability, which interprets everything from being more aware of food waste to the global footprint and sourcing ingredients.

Also on the table are awards for Best Cafe/Deli; Best Bar; Best Gastro pub/brewery; Best World; Best Newcomer; Best Customer Service; Best Fine-Dining; Best Chef; Outstanding Contribution; Overall Restaurant of the Year and the People’s Choice award. This was introduced last year and Olive and Feta at Farsley, a long established family run restaurant, were the winners.

Making the all important decisions will be our expert panel of judges, returning for 2020 after their Oliver Awards debut last year, and they will be working based upon the restaurant reviews published each week in the YEP.

They are consultant chef Stephanie Moon, a previous winner of the Outstanding Achievement award after having gained experience at The Dorchester in London and cooking for the Queen at a state banquet; food writer Amanda Wragg, who has worked in the hospitality industry for years, starting off by pulling pints in her parents’ pub in the Peak District when she was 10.

As well as judging for the Yorkshire Evening Post, she writes for The Yorkshire Post and The Sunday Times; beer writer, author and journalist Simon Jenkins, a man who certainly knows his beer from his brandy wine completes the panel.

John Dammone, of Salvo’s, which was the winner of the outstanding contribution award in 2019, said: “It is a fantastic opportunity to meet up with your cohorts in the industry and it is a great opportunity where we are not on duty and to let our hair down and enjoy each other’s company.

“We hope we will be coming again this year.”

NOMINATE AND CAST YOUR VOTE

One of the best ways to lend your support to the local dining scene – apart from booking a table of course – is to vote in the YEP Oliver Awards.

All the nominations will be revealed in November before our judges whittle them down to a shortlist in January.

The winners will be announced at a black tie event at Elland Road in March.