The Judging Panel met last weekend, this time comprising a small group of long-time, very experienced reviewers, as opposed to the full ZOAP Review Team, which met to carry out the same function for 2010. An experiment in whether more minds on the job would help or hinder the 2010 session was fraught with endless red herrings and incidental issues arising, leading to many interesting arguments which, however, bore no relation to the job in hand. This effectively made a hard job, even harder — so for 2011, we reverted to the format of previous years with a panel of eight, with out of Harare reviewers represented. Zim on a Plate currently has reviewers in Harare, Bulawayo, Mutare and Victoria Falls. More and more these days, with the competition well-matured and now into its seventh year, ZOAP management sends reviewers as much as is practicable, to assess restaurants outside their home base — ensuring like is compared with like, countrywide.
While not in any way speeding up the process — in fact, the session took a full day, starting at 9 and ending at 5, the reduction in minds applied to the challenge of judging at least meant that focus on the task in hand was fully maintained throughout. The task was daunting. There were excellent finalists in the five categories requiring a decision from the Judges (with two categories being won by their only 5 Plate Rated entrants for 2011).
Lengthy discussions and detailed perusals of score sheets, reviews, menus and wine lists took place over many hours. The judges, who dine out often and widely, were also able to draw on their own experiences and observations at the finalist establishments over the course of last year, if this brought relevant and useful information to the table.
All in all, the competition was very, very close, making it very difficult to isolate the clear winner, particularly in the Deluxe Category which had an amazing 10 finalists, all of them, excellent!
It was very pleasing to see 24 Service Personalities nominated this year. The Service Personality of the Year was introduced in 2009, giving these unsung heroes and heroines of the restaurant trade the chance to shine. Just being nominated is a wonderful accolade. Each nominee has been named a Service Personality of the Month on these pages. Each will receive a Finalist Certificate and a Zim on a Plate branded name badge to wear proudly, which announces them as a finalist for this award. The review team are on the look out for outstanding service people whenever they dine out, no matter whether they are reviewing at the time or not.
An innovation at this awards ceremony will be the announcement and award of The Most Imaginative Menu 2011 in each Entry Category, as well as the overall winner of this award, where previously, just the one award was given. The winner in each category (except the one in which the overall winner falls) will receive an award certificate. The overall winner will receive the coveted plate award.
