Jimi Famurewa named restaurant writer of the year for second year running at prestigious Guild of Food Writers awards

The paper’s chief restaurant critic said the win had been ‘a surprise, but the loveliest sort of one’
Winning streak: Famurewa also picked up the award last summer
Natasha Pszenicki

The Evening Standard’s chief restaurant critic, Jimi Famurewa, has won the Restaurant Writing Award from the well-respected Guild of Food Writers – for a second year in a row.

Famurewa, who now writes a weekly restaurant review in the paper, won for the Jimi Eats World column he did for ES Magazine, before he took over the paper’s review page when longstanding critic Fay Maschler stepped down at the tail end of last year.

Though an in-person ceremony had been cancelled, a half hour presentation was given on the Guild’s Instagram account. Guild member Sumayya Usmani, who presented the award, said it “recognises the best restaurant writers and reviewers, who present their opinions in readable, reliable and responsible ways.”

Famurewa beat stiff competition from the Guardian’s Grace Dent – who was his predecessor on the Standard’s magazine – as well as the Financial Times’s Tim Hayward.

“I am incredibly thrilled and honoured to be awarded this prize again,” Famurewa said of his win, “It was a surprise, but the loveliest sort of one; it feels great to have the recognition, especially two years in a tow, and it makes it all worth it.”

Writing on Instagram yesterday evening, Famurewa said he’d been so sure he wouldn’t win he’d been in the kitchen at the time of the announcement. He captioned his post: “An absurd bit of business but I am very chuffed, genuinely surprised (seriously, I was so certain I wouldn’t win it again that I was glamorously cooking some frozen peas for the kids when the announcement was made) and hugely grateful.”

To read Jimi’s award-winning reviews, head to this page.

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