The highly respected restaurant guide’s 2021 edition will not be published this year
THIS year is quickly becoming ‘the year everything was cancelled’. Parties, music tours, theatre, art galleries, festivals, special meals and pretty much everything fun have all been mowed down in the path of this virus.
It’s the right thing to do, of course, but that doesn’t stop it being depressing.
“A fair and accurate approach does not seem possible during these times”
The hospitality industry was the first to feel the Co-blow as enforced closure of restaurants led to panic, heartbreak and job losses. Many small businesses have been scrambling to come up with temporary solutions that keep them cooking, while others have furloughed staff, closed completely and are riding out the storm in the best way for them.
The knock-on effect felt across the wider food industry’s makers, suppliers and growers has been in the spotlight recently too.
With no restaurants to speak of, other important players in the hospitality world: writers, critics and guides have had to change their approach or make difficult decisions.
One of the key events in the hospitality calendar is the publication of the yearly Good Food Guide every September. It’s an announcement we at Confidentials look forward to each year – as do many of our readers – but this year it’s not to be.
The guide announced in a statement on their website yesterday that in spite of their wish to ‘shine a light’ on the UK’s incredible dining scene ‘now more than ever’, a fair and accurate approach does not seem possible during these times. Therefore there will be no published guide this September (the 2021 edition) for the first time in the guide’s history.
The Good Food Guide was created in 1951 by Raymond Postgate and will be celebrating 70 years in business next year.
That statement in full can be found here.
