Recent online media coverage related to the 2012 Eat Out Restaurant Awards has prompted New Media to issue a clarifying statement:

The Eat Out Restaurant Awards is a highly credible annual event that honours and celebrates the best restaurants and top chefs in South Africa, with almost a year of preparation behind each year's awards. Great care is taken to ensure that the Eat Out judges have the depth of experience and objectivity to judge meaningfully and fairly, arriving at finalists and, ultimately, winners that are worthy of Eat Out Awards.

As has been the case since the awards began in 1998, the 2012 Eat Out Awards followed a strict set of rules. We stand by the resulting selections, which we believe reflect what we've stated before: that the winning restaurants illustrate astonishing talent in an establishment of world-class standard, and leave one inspired and enraptured.

Assisting Eat Out's editor Abigail Donnelly in 2012 was international judge Bruce Palling, who is a well-known and respected restaurant critic in the UK and the US, and was chosen as a judge for the Eat Out Awards based on his credentials. In addition to his role as the Wall Street Journal Europe food columnist, restaurant critic for Business Life, and blogger, he brought with him a wealth of international judging experience. He has been on the judging panel for the San Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants for the past six years, and is also a panellist for the UK’s National Restaurant Awards.

Mr. Palling has entirely fulfilled his Eat Out obligations as international judge for the 2012 Eat Out Awards. This did not require any reviewing or writing on restaurants either before, during or after his appointment as an Eat Out judge in 2012. New Media has no control over Mr. Palling’s comments, nor, in fact, those of any individual made in their personal capacity.

As we have done for the past 15 years, New Media continues to strive to give the South African restaurant industry and public an awards process and crowning event that is credible, in touch with the times, and of the highest quality. New Media is always open to constructive feedback that assists with the evolution of the Eat Out brand in order to best serve our vibrant and interconnected community of chefs, restaurateurs, media and diners.

For more information about Eat Out, visit the Eat Out page on Facebook, and follow @eat_out on Twitter.

For more information about New Media, please visit www.newmediapub.co.za or follow @NewMediaZA on Twitter.