Cast your vote in Velvet Food & Drink Awards by May 3

mike.scialom@iliffemedia.co.uk

Published: 17:22, 17 April 2024

| Updated: 17:31, 17 April 2024

The second Velvet Food & Drink Awards will be at Newmarket’s Jockey Club Room on 10 June, with nominations invited from the public until May 3.

Velvet is an award-winning monthly lifestyle magazine which covers fashion, beauty and culture - among many other topics - across Cambridge, Bury St Edmunds, Bishop's Stortford, Ely, Long Melford, Royston and Sudbury.

The inaugural Velvet Food & Drink Awards 2023, with Alice Ryan, senior editor of Velvet magazine and Grace Mills from KUCO. Picture: Keith Heppell

The major local pick up points are Waitrose, the Grand Arcade and the five Cambridge Park & Ride sites.

Public nominations for 12 categories are open now. The main categories are Producer, Farm Shop/Deli, Pub/Bar, Tearoom/Coffee Shop, Street Food/Pop-up, Restaurant, Chef, Food Hero, Sustainability Hero, Equality Hero, Hospitality Hero, and Community Hero. Details for each category here.

Restaurant 22 was a 2023 Velvet Food & Drink Awards winner

Headline sponsor is TR Events & Catering, a division of TR Global Events.

Additional sponsorship comes from Newmarket Racecourses, Grub Club, Howes Percival, Cameron Hotel Collection, Kale & Damson, The Jockey Club Rooms, Treatt plc, Thomas Ridley Foodservice, Martin & Co, Rutherford’s Punting, Star Radio (Broadcast Partner) and Manna Seoul.

The 2023 Velvet Food & Drink Awards at the Jockey Club, Newmarket. The award for Food & Drink Hero, sponsored by The Jockey Club Rooms with, from left Alice Ryan, senior editor of Velvet magazine, plus winners Jonny Bescoby, The Brew Project, Ely; Steffi Callister, Drivetime presenter for Cambridge 105 Radio; and Velvet’s Emily Lloyd-Ruck representing sponsors The Jockey Club. Picture: Keith Heppell

Details of the 12-strong judging panel here. The full list of 2023 Velvet Food & Drink Awards winner is available here.

Velvet senior editor Alice Ryan said: “We are so pleased to bring these awards back for 2024. They launched just last year and we were blown away by the response - we had almost 1,000 public nominations - so we know our area takes its food and drink seriously!

Steak & Honour was a 2023 Velvet Food & Drink Awards winner. Picture: Keith Heppell.

"Designed to give credit where it's genuinely due, all nominations are made by members of the public - you! - with the winners then chosen by independent industry experts.