Jimi Famurewa, the Standard’s chief restaurant critic, has won the restaurant writing award at ceremony hosted by the prestigious Guild of Food Writers. It is the third time he has had the honour.
Famurewa, who last picked up the award in 2021 and before that in 2020, won for his weekly reviews, which are published both in print and online every Wednesday. Also shortlisted for the award were the Guardian’s Grace Dent and Anna Sulan Masing.
Famurewa said of his award: “It’s honestly hard to fully express how thrilled I am to have won this award for the third time.
“Restaurant writing can sometimes feel like toiling in isolation, firing opinions off into the ether, so to receive this recognition again is really significant. That it’s a vote of confidence for the Evening Standard and for London’s restaurants feels like the cherry on a ridiculously well-iced cake.”
At an event in held in the Royal Institution on Mayfair’s Albermarle Street, the honour of the evening went to Ken Hom OBE, who was given the lifetime achievement award. Hom has presented cookery programmes for almost 40 years, and has published more than 20 recipe books.
Delia Smith CH CBE, who is the patron of the Guild (and a former Standard writer herself, having regularly contributed a column in the Seventies), was also in attendance. Smith presented a special award to the #CookForUKRAINE campaign, and specifically to Olia Hercules and Alissa Timoshkina, whose work helps feed those affected by the Russian invasion.
Other winners on the evening included the well-liked Quo Vadis chef proprietor Jeremy Lee, who got the nod for his 2022 book Cooking: Simply and Well, for One or Many, and Mark Hix, for his recipes printed in the Telegraph Magazine. Journalist Bee Wilson won the award for food writing, for her work in the London Review of Books and the Guardian.
Chef and Saturday Kitchen presenter Matt Tebbutt presented the event, while the crowd included a number of high profile food figures, including presenter Mary Berry and restaurateur Russell Norman.
