You could win £100 just by voting in our restaurant awards

The Shortlist for this year’s awards, which celebrate success in the local dining industry, was published last week but the deadline for our new People’s Choice award runs until Thursday (January 31). To vote, simply log onto www.oliverards.co.uk and follow the instructions. By voting, you will not only be supporting your favourite restaurant, you will be benefiting the local dining scene as a whole. This year, our main sponsor is Bestway Wholesale. Each year, we bring together hundreds of people from the restaurant scene across Yorkshire, from owners and managers to chefs and waiting staff. Last year’s ceremony was hosted by Look North’s Harry Gration. Previous ceremonies have been attended by Michelin starred chefs Tommy Banks from the Black Swan at Olstead and Michael O’Hare, from The Man Behind The Curtain. We’re also proud of our track record in spotting rising talents and celebrating those who have striven to set themselves apart from the crowd by creating something unique. This year we have also enlisted the services of three expert judges - consultant chef Stephanie Moon, who has cooked for The Queen during her illustrious career and has been dubbed ‘the closest thing Yorkshire has to a food ambassador’, esteemed food writer and former Sunday Times columnist Amanda Wragg, who also writes for our sister paper The Yorkshire Post, and last but by no means least, beer writer, journalist and author of several books, Simon Jenkins. Together, they have pored over more than 300 individual category entries into the 2019 awards to produce this year’s Shortlist, which is available to view online now. Over the coming weeks and in the run up to the awards ceremony itself on March 11, they will be using their judgement to pick the winners in each of our 16 categories. To keep up to date, see our weekly reviews every Thursday in the YEP. In the meantime, we would like to wish all those who have been shortlisted the best of luck and we look forward to seeing you in March. Also sponsoring the awards are: Slingsby Gin, Foodit, Bidfood, Forge Recycling, LWC Drinks and Elite Shopfitters.