Restaurant of the Year is a celebration of Yorkshire’s hospitality at a difficult time for the industry
Yorkshire’s food and drink sector is to be widely celebrated. It imbues the region’s greatest values. People working hard in entrepreneurial ways to bring the best food and drink underpinned with a service that only Yorkshire can deliver.
That is why The Yorkshire Post is delighted to launch its Restaurant of the Year initiative.
From Forge at Middleton Lodge to Pignut at the Hare, there is an excellent line up of some of the finest restaurants anyone will find in the world.
In fact, the region’s dining scene is so strong that there are many others worthy of mention that haven’t featured.
Food and drink businesses in the region take great pride in what they do and it shows.
Unfortunately, a lot of hospitality businesses are facing a crisis through no fault of their own.
As Kate Nicholls OBE, chair of industry group UK Hospitality, writes in this newspaper today, costs facing the sector are “suffocating local businesses and threatening their ability to stay open”.
Adding that “even the very best restaurants are not immune”.
Yorkshire’s hospitality sector is not just about providing great experiences. Many of these businesses stand as pillars keeping up the local community.
They provide employment, cycle money back into the local economy and render an invaluable service of knitting the social fabric together.
Pubs are a great example of this, acting as more than just a watering hole. Providing people a place to meet and gather, doing their bit against the pandemic of loneliness.
The Government needs to do much more to ensure that this all important sector is protected.
Only last month, an advisor to Rachel Reeves said “We don’t need any more restaurants.”
As renowned Yorkshire Michelin Star chef Tommy Banks says, this confirms that the sector is not understood, valued, or prioritised” by the Government.