10 steps to a winning Caterer Awards nomination
With less than three weeks to deadline, Caterer Middle East is urging F&B outlets from across the Middle East to put themselves and their people forward for this year's Caterer Middle East Awards.
This year marks the fourth edition of the annual Caterer Middle East Awards and the team is expecting the competition to be tougher than ever before. F&B outlets from across the region are being encouraged to enter and finish incomplete entries before the deadline on Thursday July 26 2012.
There are 14 categories in this year’s awards, with some broader categories split into defined ones to offer more recognition of the evolving roles within the industry.
The people category includes: restaurant manager of the year; bar manager of the year; sommelier of the year; waiter of the year; bartender of the year; events caterer of the year – which is open to any banqueting or events caterer in the region; sous chef of the year; pastry chef of the year; kitchen hero of the year – which is open to any member of kitchen staff in the position of chef de partie all the way down to the most junior kitchen assistant; chef of the year in a standalone restaurant and; chef of the year in a hotel restaurant.
Restaurant of the Year and Bar of the Year are predicted to be among the most popular categories as is New Outlet of the Year, open to restaurants and bars that have been operating between 1 May 2011 and 1 May 2012.
All nominations must be made using the entry form online at www.hoteliermiddleeast.com/catererawards
With less than three weeks to go until the nominations process closes and with competition expected to be tougher than ever before, here is Caterer’s quick fire guide to help you submit a strong nomination.
Click through to the next page to see Caterer Middle East's 10 steps to submitting a winning entry...
Pick a champion: Appoint someone from the outlet to be the Caterer Awards Champion. It’s best if the person is from the HR or GM department and ideally, someone who is well connected with the outlet and the achievements of high performing colleagues. This eliminates the problem of multiple nominations and ensures all relevant data is put together to create a single strong nomination.
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Double-check: It’s a good idea to pass on your nomination to a marketing department so they can help if a nomination needs translating into English, and they can check it contains all the required information.
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Contextualise: Focus on the recent achievement of a colleague. If they’ve taken an active role in lowering the water consumption through operations, what impact has this had on the outlet, or even the hotel as a whole? Facts and figures to back this up are always very useful.
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Interesting people: Look for someone that goes above and beyond their role. It’s easy to do a job well, but bringing something extra-special to it is what will really make the nominee stand out. For example: how has your chef put themselves front of house to create a character for their outlet.
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Evidence: Our panel is tough, and does look closely at testimonials. Try and get testimonials from as many people as you can, in as broad an arena as you can, for example customers, colleagues and a general manager.
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Open to all: The awards are open to all restaurants and bars in the Middle East and nominations must be made by an outlet representative on behalf of a member of staff of their outlet.
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Apply for everything: You can nominate in as many categories as you like, but each nomination must be made separately.
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Review of the last year: Each nomination has to have relevant information from within the last 12 months, and each nominee has to have worked in the outlet for at least 12 months. If the person resigns once you have nominated them, it is important that you let the Caterer editor know.
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Complete submissions: There are four areas of the entry process: who are you nominating; why should this person win; your contact details; photograph submission of nominee. It is essential that you complete entries that you have started for them to be considered!
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Deadline: The absolute deadline for submissions is Thursday 26 July 2012. After this date, any submissions will be disregarded.
For further information, please contact catererawards@itp.com