On Tuesday, April 23rd, 2024, the 5th edition of the Culinary Awards press conference was held at the legendary NickSan restaurant. The Culinary Awards 2024 event and the details of the nominations were announced at the press conference.
The praesidium table was composed of Aníbal Amador, Coordinator of Tourism Promotion; Rodrigo Esponda, Director of the Los Cabos Tourism Trust; Claudia del Pino, CEO of Tendencia; Linda Mchatton Vázquez, CEO of PR Solutions; Mauricio Salicrup, President of the Los Cabos Hotel Association; Jesús Corral, President of the Jury; Sergio Iván Bautista of Crowe Audit and Carmen Carbajal, Hostess and Director of NickSan. Amparo García, named Ambassador for Culinary Awards Los Cabos, made the presentation.
Among words of thanks, it was announced what the methodology of the jury awards, composed of about 60 personalities from different professions, forming the Jury Mystery Shopper Culinary Awards who attend, undercover, the restaurant where they make their consumption and send the ballot digitally.
Improvements in the methodology and evaluation process to convert subjective aspects into measurable criteria that generate statistically based results are being implemented by Claudia Velo.
The point tally is validated by the Crowe auditing firm, and the terns that are scored are as follows:
- Hotel restaurant of the year
- Restaurant of the year in the city
- New Restaurant
- Established Restaurant:
- Wine Experience
- Excellence in Service
- Culinary Experience
- Chef of the Year
- Established Chef:
- Chef Pastry of the Year
The public can vote on the Culinary Awards link (culinary-awards.com), where the nominees are registered. Registration closes on May 15, 2024, for restaurants, which will run their own campaigns to promote the vote.
“The chef community in Los Cabos is united; they support each other. You can see it in the interaction that they provoke by inviting chefs to cook, as in 4 Manos events. Last Saturday was Chefs X Los Cabos, and it was a resounding success; the food, service, and venue were spectacular. The chefs organize themselves in their world,” said Claudia del Pino, founding partner with Linda Mchatton Vazquez of Culinary Awards. She also expressed her admiration for the gastronomic industry in Los Cabos, where entrepreneurs are investing for the destination to grow. Finally, she thanked all the sponsors for making this event possible.
Rodrigo Esponda agreed with these words, adding the hotel chefs. At the same time, Carmen Carbajal highlighted the work of the National Chamber of the Restaurant Industry, Canirac, to achieve this union and representation.
The importance of local gastronomy as a main attraction of the destination was also highlighted. “People like Carmen Carbajal have worked in the gastronomy of Los Cabos for years, and today, we are with this type of events in which there is motivation, and that accounts for the outstanding of the gastronomic environment,” said Mauricio Salicrup.
“I feel very proud and super honoured to be part of events that I am passionate about. Thank you for joining us, supporting us and always being there,” said Linda Mchatton Vazquez, ending the press conference while wondering the best thing about Los Cabos: “It’s people, definitely”.
