For your chance to win your next dinner on R&CA, please follow this link to complete our survey on what you consider important in your dining experience.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=amaRakb4euWk6PSFE06Hpw_3d_3d

If you would like any further information, please contact Restaurant & Catering Australia on 1300 722 878.

Have you ever wanted to leap in the car – or hop on a plane, jump on the bike or simply put on the walking shoes – and go on a food adventure?

Or, better still, have a best friend somewhere out in the rolling hills who can tell you about the great places to eat, drink and fossick for food? Well, this is the book for you.

We've commissioned five writers who love their food and know their states inside out to give you the guff on gourmet travel. They’ve scoured farmers markets, tracked down elusive producers, braved ocean fronts and empty back roads. They’ve turned up some of the most experienced, the tried and the true, as well as the new and daring, And if it doesn’t make you want to pack your bags and head off, nothing will.

To order your copy, complete the order form here, or simply pop into your local popular bookstore and pick one up today!

Purchases made at the National Restaurant Show in Chicago will be made available for $25USD + Delivery.

For any enquiries, please email restncat@restaurantcater.asn.au.

Savour Australia Restaurant Guide

R&CA has developed the Savour Australia online restaurant and cafe guide with more than 4500 restaurants listed across all states and territories. It’s the most comprehensive directory in Australia.

You can search by location, cuisine style and restaurant/cafe style or whether you wish to dine in an accredited, award-winning or Savour Australia-rated restaurant. Most of the listings also include menus, photos and web links. And you can book a table with the restaurant you select. The restaurant guide is the source of all the listings found in this book. Please note it does not cover wineries and cellar doors. To visit the guide go to: www.savouraustralia.com.au or www.restaurant.org.au

Accredited Restaurants

Two of the key R&CA programs are the Certified Professional Restaurateur program and the Accredited Restaurants program. To become accredited, restaurants and cafes must be managed by a Certified Professional Restaurateur. They also have to provide evidence of legal compliance in relation to business registrations and licences, compensation, insurance and health inspections, and agree to be randomly audited by anonymous, independent and trained assessors. Lists of accredited restaurants are found on the online Savour Australia Restaurant Guide. Each establishment also carries an accreditation logo – usually on its front door.

Savour Australia Awards for Excellence

The Savour Australia Restaurant & Catering Australia Awards for Excellence set the national benchmark. They are the most important and respected industry awards in Australia.

Establishments are assessed according to a predetermined, research-based and standardized set of criteria – making it the only truly systematic restaurant industry awards program in Australia. The state associations also train the judges and evaluators in the application of the standardized criteria, ensuring it is truly objective. During the judging process, each entrant is rated against 55 criteria – 66 in the case of fine-dining establishments. Under scrutiny are aspects such as food, service, drinks, atmosphere and value for money. Once each of the criteria is rated, the establishment is assigned a weighting to allow for those aspects that consumers consider more significant in the whole dining experience. The overall weighted total is used to compare establishments and determine finalists and winners. Winners are named across 35 awards categories including Restaurant of the Year and Caterer of the Year.

For a complete list of the 2007 Savour Australia Restaurant & Catering Award winners and finalists, please click here.

Savour Australia Ratings

Coinciding with the publication of the Food & Wine Atlas of Australia 2007 is the launch of the www.savouraustralia.com.au Savour Australia Ratings. This is the first ever nationally recognised restaurant rating system in Australia. It provides an unbiased, systematically assessed guide to Australia’s best dining experiences.

It follows in the footsteps of the Michelin Awards, the famous world-wide ratings scheme which began its life as part of the Michelin tyre company’s Touring Atlas.

Savour Australia ratings are illustrated by plate icons – 1 to 5 out of a possible 5, mathematically derived from the scores received in the annual R&CA Awards for Excellence. All restaurants judged as part of the awards are eligible to receive a Savour Australia Rating, however, please bear in mind that not every establishment in the Food & Wine Atlas of Australia 2007 has a rating. This is not because it provides any lesser experience than others, it may not have been entered or been judged in the R&CA awards, it may have elected not to have a rating published or is not eligible to enter the awards in its state because it has won the award in the relevant category more than three years in a row.

The Savour Australia Ratings will be published annually in November in the Food & Wine Atlas of Australia and the update of the Savour Australia Restaurant Guide.

The icons:
= in the fourth most highly rated group

= in the third most highly rated group

= in the second most highly rated group

= in the most highly rated group

Half plates are also used when the rating is between two levels. The icons have been awarded on the basis of the 55 or 66 judging criteria used in the Awards for Excellence system and are based on specific consumer expectations in relation to the entire dining experience.