White is AA's Chef of Decade
Marco Pierre White this week won the AA's Chef of the Decade award (Caterer, 5 October, page 5).
Runners-up for the accolade, introduced this year to coincide with the 10-year anniversary of the AA rosette awards for food, were Raymond Blanc and Pierre Koffmann.
The AA gave its Hotel of the Year title to the Castle Hotel in Hereford, while Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire, was named Restaurant of the Year.
One inspector said of the Fat Duck: "Currently the most exciting food in the UK. The menu here is shot through with bizarre-sounding combinations and wild flights of imagination."
The County Hotel in Bath, Avon, took the title of Guest Accommodation of the Year, while the AA Wine Award went to the Vineyard at Stockcross in Newbury, Berkshire.
The Courtesy and Care award, to reward exceptional service, went to Linthwaite House Hotel and Restaurant in Windermere, Cumbria.
The Celtic Manor Resort near Newport in Gwent won Hotel of the Year in Wales, and the Macdonald Holyrood Hotel in Edinburgh was Hotel of the Year in Scotland.
Restaurants awarded four AA Rosettes for the first time were the Castle Hotel in Hereford, Lords of the Manor in Upper Slaughter, Gloucestershire, and Pétrus in London.