CATEGORIES
The Eat Easy Awards celebrate the outstanding achievements of those individuals, families and businesses that are making a significant contribution through producing, catching or growing the nation's best produce and ingredients. Our judging panel is made up of some of the best minds in food in Australia, so we are seeking the very best ingredients to showcase and celebrate.
The Best Neighbourhood Dining award will find and reward places that elevate the industry through great food and positive change, no matter the expense or the prestige.
Judging Criteria: Eat Easy’s Best Neighbourhood Dining award is about finding exceptional food regardless of whether it's a restaurant, café or a hole-in-the-wall. The basis of these awards are solely based on food quality, service, atmosphere and sustainability.
We aim to find Australia’s best establishments that give customers the experience which makes them want to revisit and share. We are looking for the community’s best establishments that leave your heart and stomach full when you leave.
Total: 20 points
10 points for food – flavour, technique, produce, balance, presentation
5 points for service – care, pacing, attentiveness, professional skills
3 points for atmosphere – decor, comfort, style, vibe
2 points for sustainability, waste program, community impact
A large part of a memorable dining experience is the delivery and service. Eat Easy is searching for people who elevate the dining experience and go the extra mile to ensure the best experience for their customers.
Judging Criteria: The winner of this award consistently executes the highest standard of service, from attitude and skill to knowledge and personality. They must also be engaged in supporting and educating their team within the industry.
Service should be approachable, informed, conscientious, and appropriate for its setting. Having the server at your local fish and chip shop be able to engage with your customers is equally as important as a waiter giving the full spiel on a wine at a fine dining restaurant. Servers, in all their forms, have a deeply underrated impact in driving and upholding the community and environmental impacts of a venue.
Eat Easy Award for Best Emerging Chef recognises the chef with outstanding talent that most thoughtfully and creatively utilises exceptional produce in their venue.
The Award is for care, passion and technical skill, as much as it is about creativity and seasonality – and respect for the ingredient, land and farmer. Above all, it’s about inspiring fellow chefs, and diners.
Judging Criteria:
• Considered sourcing of their produce, demonstrated connection to the producer and understanding of how the product is raised or grown.
• Considered practice of a no waste philosophy within the venue.
• Innovation in preparation and service of product.
• Education of diner through engagement with FOH about produce on menu – understanding the cuts of animals, ingredient preparation and provenance of dishes that are served and communicating that to the guest.
The Best Producer - Grown award is for individual produce items, which are in their natural state, that taste outstanding with a focus on regeneration, social and environmental impact. To acknowledge these hard working farmers and producers, Eat Easy is searching for Australia’s best produce.
Grown is any produce item which is in its natural state (e.g. fruits, vegetables, nuts, lentils, beans, seeds, herbs, legumes) and native ingredients (e.g. wattleseed, lemon myrtle).
This award is not comparing apples to oranges, we are in search of produce that tastes outstanding while knowing the producer has a large focus on regeneration and their social and environmental impact.
PLEASE NOTE: EACH PRODUCE ITEM IS A SINGLE ENTRY.
Judging Criteria:
Flavour
Texture
Environmental Impact
Eat Easy is looking for producers that are actively invested in minimising environmental impact. This can be directly through the applying environment places or by working in programmes affiliated with the brand. The environmental impact of the producers will be judged according to the below:
Minimisation of non-reusable plastics and related materials
Food Miles
Food Waste
Engaging with sustainable farming practice
Carbon capturing within their farming practice
The overall emphasis of this section is ‘reduce, re-use, recycle’. We understand what it takes to tackle these issues head-on in an industry that already operates on tight margins. It is vital to acknowledge people in the industry tackling this, often at their own expense.
Eat Easy wants to celebrate those who dedicate their lives to producing fine food and are actively involved in sustainability and minimising their impact on the environment. To acknowledge these hard working farmers and producers, Eat Easy is searching for Australia’s best produce.
The Made category includes any natural produce item that has been intervened for an alternative purpose (e.g. cheese, flour, small-goods, yogurt, jams, honey, oil, cured produce, baked goods, jerky).
PLEASE NOTE: EACH PRODUCE ITEM IS A SINGLE ENTRY
Judging Criteria:
Flavour
Texture
Environmental Impact
Eat Easy is looking for producers that are actively invested in minimising environmental impact. This can be directly through the applying environment places or by working in programmes affiliated with the brand. The environmental impact of the producers entered will be judged according to the below:
Minimisation of non-reusable plastics and related materials
Food Miles
Food Waste
Engaging with sustainable farming practice
The overall emphasis of this section is ‘reduce, re-use, recycle’. We understand what it takes to tackle these issues head-on in an industry that already operates on tight margins. It is vital to acknowledge people in the industry tackling this, often at their own expense.
This award will celebrate the outstanding achievements of those individuals, families and businesses that are making a significant contribution through best animal farming practices, whether it's on land or water.
Land is for any produce item that has been bred for consumption with a focus on regeneration and social and environmental impact. Land includes any produce or any byproducts of those animals (e.g. beef, lamb, buffalo, kangaroo chicken, pig, duck, quail, rabbit, camel or eggs).
River & Sea produce includes any produce item that has been caught or harvested from the ocean (e.g. fish, carp, Coorong mullet, oysters, sea urchin, seaweed, abalone, crustaceans, octopus).
PLEASE NOTE: EACH PRODUCE ITEM IS A SINGLE ENTRY.
The specific criteria for entries
Environmental Stewardship
Animal Welfare
Community
Product eating quality
Land:
Flavour
Texture
Environmental Impact
Eat Easy is looking for producers that are actively invested in minimising environmental impact. This can be directly through environment practice or by working in programmes affiliated with the brand.
The products entered will be judged according to the 4 biggest environmental impacts:
Minimisation of non-reusable plastics and related materials
Food Miles
Food Waste
Engaging with sustainable farming practice
The overall emphasis of this section is ‘reduce, re-use, recycle’. We understand what it takes to tackle these issues head-on in an industry that already operates on tight margins. It is vital to acknowledge people in the industry tackling this, often at their own expense.
River & Sea:
Flavour
Texture
Environmental Impact
Eat Easy is looking for producers that are actively invested in minimising environmental impact. This can be directly through environment practice or by working in programmes affiliated with the brand.
The products entered will be judged according to the 4 biggest environmental impacts:
Minimisation of non-reusable plastics and related materials
Food Miles
Food Waste
Engaging with sustainable farming practice
The overall emphasis of this section is ‘reduce, re-use, recycle’. We understand what it takes to tackle these issues head-on in an industry that already operates on tight margins. It is vital to acknowledge people in the industry tackling this, often at their own expense.