The crown prize for the evening will be National Restaurant of the Year, an award that last year went to Heston Blumenthal’s Fat Duck.
Other individual awards up for grabs this year include: Best Restaurant in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland; Restaurateurs’ Choice; Highest New Entry; Chefs’ Chef of the Year; Front-of-House Award; Sustainable Restaurant of the Year; Gastropub of the Year; Hotel Restaurant of the Year; Wine List of the Year; and One to Watch.
“The UK restaurant industry is in great shape, despite the difficult year we have had, and many great new restaurants have emerged in 2010. The National Restaurant Awards and the announcement of the UK's Top 100 Restaurants on Monday are therefore a great reason to celebrate these achievements," said William Drew, editor of Restaurant Magazine.
Voting process
The awards, which will be held at the Grand Connaught rooms in London on 11 October, will follow the first day of this year’s Restaurant Show at London’s Earl Court 2.
Winners in each of the 15 awarded categories have been selected by the National Restaurant Awards Academy, compiled of at least 30 voters from each of 12 regions in the UK.
The voters include some of the UK’s best known chefs, restaurateurs and food critics, Restaurants were selected by each member of the panel voting for their personal choice of seven restaurants – with up to five coming from their own region and at least two from outside their home region.
Past winners
As well as winning the National Restaurant of the Year 2009, Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck in Bray also won the Best Restaurant in England last year.
Other winners last year included: The Walnut Tree, named the Best Restaurant in Wales; Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester, which picked up Restaurateurs’ Choice; Sat Bains, who was named Chefs’ Chef of the Year; and The Sportsman, which scooped Gastropub of the Year.
Check back with BigHospitality.co.uk on Monday evening to see a list of this year's winners, or follow us on twitter for live updates as the winners are announced: twitter.com/BigHospitality
Just a handful of tickets for this year's awards remain and can be booked by contacting Rikki Mudie on 01293 610396 or rikki.mudie@william-reed.co.uk.