Just as the awards season in Hollywood is getting into gear at the moment, January is also the month when many of the big restaurant guides begin to announce their gongs for the year.
First up is the AA Guide which today announced its three rosette awards winners. Picking up three rosettes for the first time (which according to the guide mean they are 'outstanding restaurants that achieve standards that demand recognition well beyond their local area') are Nuno Mendes' Viajante restaurant in Bethnal Green, Pierre Koffmann's eponymous restaurant at The Berkeley Hotel and Alexis Gauthier's similarly self-referencing Gauthier in Soho.
'It is a pleasure and an honor to be recognized by this guide after having just opened,' Nuno told us. 'This award will give our team more motivation and strength to move forward and to become better.'
Two of the restaurants picked out by the AA guide lost their head chefs over the past year - Maze in Mayfair, which used to have Jason Atherton in the kitchen and Roussillon in Pimlico, which used to be Gauthier's restaurant. It's now headed up by Dan Gill who told Hot Dinners 'I'm absolutely delighted with the news that Roussillon has been awarded a third AA Rosette Since the summer the whole team at Roussillon, both front of house and in the kitchen, have worked extremely hard...The award helps us all to see we are heading forward in the right direction and achieving our goal of maintaining Roussillon as a recognized part of the London dining scene.'
Three Rosettes Awards winners for London:
- The Ritz, Piccadilly
- Viajante, Bethnal Green
- Gauthier, Soho
- Koffmann's, Knightsbridge
- Roussillon, Pimlico
- Maze, Mayfair
