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Waitrose Buys The Good Food Guide: The UK retailer Waitrose has today announced that it has taken over the publication of the UK's leading selling restaurant guide, The Good Food Guide.
Waitrose has purchased the company and will take over running both the print and online versions of the guide immediately.
The Good Food Guide was started in 1951 by the journalist and food lover Raymond Postgate. Postgate who just a few years earlier had assembled the The Good Food Club, an army of gourmands recruited to secretly inspect restaurants and write detailed reports on their experience. A simple man, Postgate's goals were to, "‘to raise the standard of cooking in Britain’ and ‘to do ourselves all a bit of good by making our holidays, travels and evenings-out in due course more enjoyable’.
First cover for the 1951 Good Food Guide.
Since 1951 the guide has been published annually providing the low-down on the best pubs, restaurants and cafes to eat at across the UK. Venues are scored from 1-10 with 1 showing capable cooking with some inconsistencies and 10, a perfect score achieved in 2013 by only Simon Rogan at L'Enclume and Heston Blumenthal at The Fat Duck, signifying a very rare restaurant that consistently achieves perfect dishes.
Speaking about the purchase, consultant editor of The Good Food Guide, Elizabeth Carter, said:"The Good Food Guide will continue to maintain its reputation as the country's foremost independent restaurant guide. We will be offering the same high calibre, knowledgeable restaurant reviews which have helped the Guide become the respected publication it is today. Joining the Waitrose family marks a new chapter in its prestigious history."
The move is all part of the supermarket's plans to become the number one spot for serious food lovers with the brand fostering a number of expert food links within the industry over the past few years. Including collaborations with chefs like Heston Blumenthal, weekly and monthly food publications, their own TV channel and now the guide.
“We aim to be the go to shop for food lovers," said Rupert Thomas, Waitrose Marketing Director, adding: "“The Good Food Guide has a loyal following among our customers and we will continue to operate it as an independent authority on eating out within the UK...becoming the publisher of this well-loved guide will continue to develop our brand as an authority on good food."
Copies of the 2014 guide will go on sale in Waitrose stores around September and the company have taken over operation of The Good Food Guide website from today.
Top Ten Restaurants from The 2013 Good Food Guide:
1. The Fat Duck, Bray, Berkshire. Cooking score 10.
2. L’Enclume, Cartmel, Cumbria. Cooking score 10.
3. Restaurant Sat Bains, Nottingham. Cooking score 9.
4. Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, London. Cooking score 9.
5. Restaurant Nathan Outlaw, Rock, Cornwall. Cooking score 9.
6. Pollen Street Social, London. Cooking score 9.
7. Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, Great Milton, Oxfordshire. Cooking score 8.
8. Hibiscus, London. Cooking score 8.
9. The Square, London. Cooking score 8.
10. The Ledbury, London. Cooking score 8.
