The judging has recommenced. After all, this year’s started as soon as last year’s awards were finished. With just three weeks to go before the eighth annual Table Talk Food Awards, our judges are now tallying the scores for the 18 awards.

The people with the unenviable task of picking the winners are: Peter Bunting, Natasha Kessler, Brett Wong, Maurine Capleton (event stylist), Marilyn Bennett, Cecile Levee, Ann Chen, Patrick Casserly, Norma Shirley (logistics and resource), Colin Hylton, Odette Dixon Neath and Gassan Azan.

Thursday’s meeting took place over dinner inside the Terra Nova Hotel’s Ardelle dalla Costa-designed Regency dining room.

The Restaurant Awards are:

Best Kept Secret

Best Lunch Spot

Best Place When Someone Else is Buying

Best Theme Restaurant

Best Sunday Spot

Best Service

Best Décor

Coolest Watering Hole

Caterer of the Year

Restaurant of the Year

The Food Awards:

New Food Item

Total Shopping Experience

Lifetime Food Award

Chairman’s Award

Event Stylist of the Year

Most Romantic Restaurant

The committee is pleased to introduce two new categories –

Most Innovative Dish and Star Turns – in recognition of those who put Jamaica upfront and centre in the international media spotlight.

Naturally, the award for Restaurant of the Year is the most sought-after, and the judges will deliberate for another two weeks before deciding on the winner.

The most innovative dish category gives us the opportunity to celebrate a myriad of creative dishes prepared across the length and breadth of the island by our most innovative cooks and chefs.

Our judges will have lots to taste too as a decision is made about the Best New Food/Beverage Item of 2005. Our seminar, to be held at the Jamaica Pegasus on May 31, looks at Making The ‘A’ List – the dymanics of celebrity and marketing. The main presenter is director of tourism Paul Pennicook.

Follow our pages over the next few weeks as we seek to honour Jamaica’s culinary best.