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The Courier’s annual celebration of the very best food and drink offerings in Angus, Dundee, Perthshire and Fife is back.

Yes, entries are now open for The Courier Food & Drink Awards 2025, in partnership with Barnetts, which celebrate the achievements of eateries and businesses throughout the area.

This year’s awards at the Old Course Hotel in St Andrews were a huge success and put a stamp on the ceremony as a must-attend event for food and drink fans.

Next year’s awards will be at a new venue, the Apex City Quay Hotel & Spa in Dundee, on Wednesday March 26.

Celebrating and championing local food and drink and hospitality, the awards will shine on businesses across 12 different categories.

And five respected chefs from across Tayside and Fife, who will be announced in the coming weeks, will each cook up a course at the dinner.

We will also be revealing an esteemed judging panel shortly.

A record number of entries were received for the 2024 edition and it proved to be a hugely difficult job for the judges to decide on winners.

This year’s categories are: Bar of the Year; Brewer of the Year; Chef of the Year; Community Champion; Entrepreneur of the Year; Independent Café of the Year; Producer of the Year; Restaurant of the Year; Rising Star; Street Vendor of the Year; Spirit Producer of the Year and Sustainability Award.

The host for the awards will also be announced in the coming weeks.

Editor of The Courier, David Clegg, said the amazing chefs, artisan producers and businesses make the Food & Drink Awards a big highlight of the newspaper’s year.

“The food and drink talent in Courier Country never ceases to amaze me – we are so incredibly fortunate to be living in an area that is absolutely bursting with energy and expertise.

“I love attending the awards and listening to the stories that our amazing food and drink producers, chefs, bar owners and hoteliers have to tell.

“You also have to remember it is incredibly tough at times for hospitality and I continually marvel at how these devoted people strive for quality.

“The awards not only recognise the success of businesses in the area, but the individuals behind them who put their blood, sweat and tears into making their companies a success.

“We are so fortunate to have invention in abundance in the food and drink scene locally, so it is only right and proper that we celebrate it.”

Awards headline sponsor and Restaurant of the Year sponsor, Barnetts, are proud to be involved.

“We are delighted to be the headline sponsor of this year’s Courier Food & Drink Awards and have been a supporter of growth of our food and drink community for some,” they said.

“We believer that the Courier Food & Drink Awards are an important part of such growth and awards celebrate the achievements of Courier Country’s most outstanding businesses and individuals.

“The awards are a brilliant platform for our hospitality arena to showcase and share their success stories and they give us a chance to recognise the innovation and creativity that drives our hospitality forward.”

Altar, sponsor of the Spirit Producer of the Year award, said: “With a high number of Altar clients operating in the UK spirits industry, we are delighted to sponsor the Spirit Producer of the Year award.”

Sponsor of the Brewer of the Year award, the University of Dundee School of Business said: “The University of Dundee School of Business is delighted to be sponsoring these awards, which supports and celebrates the diverse food and drink community across Tayside.”

Bar of the Year award sponsor, Diageo, said: “Diageo is delighted to support the Courier Food & Drink Awards and are pleased to be sponsoring Bar of the Year Award,”

Sponsors of the Entrepreneur of the Year, The Rookery, said: “The Rookery is delighted to sponsor these awards for another year and look forward to rewarding the valuable contributions made by our hospitality industry.”

For more information and to enter, (entries close on January 12), visit courierfoodanddrinkawards.com 

This article appeared in The Courier on 8 November 2024.