William weighs in on awards snobbery

There’s considerable excitement in the food industry surrounding the brand-new World Restaurant Awards, the winners of which will be announced at a ceremony in Paris on 18 February. The man behind these gongs is shaggy-haired Irishman Joe Warwick and, as a top British chef tells me, ‘unlike the dullards behind Michelin, Joe actually enjoys eating out, and he realises that the best places don’t need to come with a tasting menu, a grovelling sommelier and a threemonth waiting list’. Hear, hear!