AA awards rosettes ahead of next guide

In an unprecedented move, the AA Restaurant Guide has awarded six new accolades to restaurants under its rosette scheme, eight months before the publication of its 2005 guide.

The AA's reasons for this move are twofold, according to its publishers. Conventionally, rosettes are awarded with the publication of the annual guide in September, although the demands of publishing mean that the guidebook goes to press in June.

This, coupled with the fact that the guide publishes for the year ahead (the 2005 guide will be launched in September), has meant that restaurants opening in late spring and early summer don't make it into the guide for 18 months.

"For some years we've recognised that the information delivered through the guide can be potentially out of date and we've been mulling over this move for a couple of years," said Peter Birnie, the AA's chief hotel inspector.

He added: "London restaurant Tom Aikens is a good example. The restaurant opened at the end of April and to make the Aikens wait until September seemed unfair. This way we can give awards when we're ready rather than waiting for another six months."

There are two new four-rosette restaurants and four new three-rosette recipients. The restaurant guide's second-highest award, four rosettes for restaurants that "exhibit intense ambition, a passion for excellence, superb technical skills and remarkable consistency", are Scotland's Andrew Fairlie at Gleneagles in Auchterarder and Tom Aikens.

Three rosettes, meanwhile, "for sympathetic treatment of the highest quality ingredients" goes to Glenapp Castle in Ballantrae, professional home of Tristan Welch, current holder of the Gordon Ramsay Scholar title, and London restaurants the Savoy Grill, the Berkeley Square Café and Fleur (which closed last week following problems over the renewal of the lease - see story on page 6).

Birnie confirmed that the AA would continue to announce new awards between publication of its restaurant guides if appropriate. "We don't want to be changing our ratings every month and we have to be careful not to give places premature awards," he added.

While rival publication Michelin publishes its annual guide for the UK and Ireland later this month, Birnie dismissed the suggestion that this had influenced the AA's decision to announce the new rosettes now. "It didn't cross our minds. They tend to move at a different speed to us when giving out their awards anyway."

Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper, 8 - 14 January 2004