The Good Food Guide facts for kids
The Good Food Guide was a special book published every year in the United Kingdom. It helped people find the best restaurants to eat at. The first guide came out in 1951. From 2013 to 2021, it was published by Waitrose. Before that, a company called Which?books published it.
Contents
About the Guide
The Good Food Guide was started in 1951 by Raymond Postgate. He really loved good food and was not happy with the quality of restaurants back then. He found many volunteers to secretly visit restaurants and rate them. He believed that you could not trick a whole group of people.
The guide was special because it was rewritten completely every year. It was also fully independent. This means it did not have any ads or sponsors. Restaurants did not pay to be included. All inspections were done secretly. The guide usually listed over 1,200 top places to eat.
Readers could send in their own reviews through the Good Food Guide website. These reviews were then looked at for the next year's guide. Restaurants were given a score out of ten points.
History of the Guide
How It Started
One of the first people to write for the Guide was Margaret Costa. She later opened her own restaurant called Lacy's in Mayfair. So many people sent in reviews for Lacy's. The guide even split its entry for the restaurant into "Love Lacy's" and "Loathe Lacy's" sections.
Important Moments
In 2008, a special London edition of the Guide was published. This was similar to what the Michelin guide had done the year before.
The 2013 edition of the Guide gave a perfect score of ten to two famous restaurants. These were Heston Blumenthal's The Fat Duck and Simon Rogan's L'Enclume. Also, a Little Chef restaurant near Popham was included in the 2010 guide. This happened after Heston Blumenthal gave it a new look for a TV show.
The Guide's Final Years
In August 2013, Waitrose & Partners bought and started publishing the guide. It continued to come out every year. However, in May 2021, Waitrose announced that the guide would not be published that year. They also said there were no plans to publish it in the future.
Awards Given by the Guide
Every year, the Guide gave out special Editor's Awards. These awards were given in different groups. Some of the awards included:
- Restaurant of the Year
- Best New Entry
- Chef of the Year
- Chef to Watch
- Best for Sustainability
- Best Local Restaurant
