Over in America, the 2020 James Beard Award have been announced and there were several British names up for contention.

If you haven't heard of the awards, think of these as a stateside Oscars, if you like, of the food world. They started 30 years ago and since then have become a barometer of what's hot (and cool) in the culinary world, recognising chefs, restaurants and food writers alike.

This year's winners and shortlisted

You aren't going to see many awards ceremonies this year, what with everything being closed and the whole social distancing thing. But that didn't deter Fortnum & Mason last night. Their awards are primarily about food writing, so this year they moved the ceremony online, presented by Claudia Winkleman as usual, and with a special guest appearance from Stephen Fry. 

So here's who won an award last

As there are no actual restaurants open in many places across the world right now, the people behind the World's 50 Best Restaurants have made the fairly sensible decision to delay their next awards until 2021. After all, even if there are a few restaurants open somewhere, nobody can actually travel to get to them. 

So, the main list is going to be furloughed for a year, assuming that's what the announcement that the "annual list will not be released

Eight London pubs made the 2020 top 50 Best Gastropubs list - here's why.

The votes are in! We asked you to vote for your favourite new restaurant of 2019 - and here's what you said. 

With so much happening on the London restaurant scene this year, it's been harder than ever to whittle down our annual shortlist. But here - for your delectation - is the full list of Hot Dinners Awards for 2019 covering everything from the hottest scene to the tastiest dish, from the counter to be seen dining at to our most coveted accolade, Best Restaurant. 

Always one of the better food awards that happen at the tail end of the year, tonight was the turn of the Observer Food Monthly awards. 

As ever, they're awards which try to spread the love around the whole country, with Bank Tavern in Bristol the best place for a Sunday Lunch, 288 Bar and Wok being a great restaurant for cheap eats and Danny Wallace, working for Gary Usher's

The new AA restaurant guide for 2020 is out and London is storming ahead of the rest of the country.

London got 27 new entries in the book (there were 140 new entries in total). The guide contains over 2,000 restaurants currently awarded Rosettes for culinary excellence by the AA’s professional inspectors.

New this year for London are the following restaurants:

• The Rex Whistler Restaurant, SW1
• Hide – Ground,

There are some constants in this life. And it's a sure thing that every year, come the day that the Michelin Guide reveals who has won, lost and retained a Michelin star, that there will be grumbling. Some will say the stars are no longer relevant, others that not enough have been awarded, others still that the stars have gone to the wrong chefs. But one thing's for sure - for something that's not apparently that important

(We're updating this piece as the awards are released) 

We're gearing up for the new Michelin awards for 2020, probably the most important awards of the season. They're being announced on Monday afternoon - but as ever, Michelin is announcing the new Bib Gourmands to get us in the Michelin mood. 

So these aren't stars - but kind of a prelude to the stars. The Bib Gourmands

It might have been properly tipping it down outside at the time, but a whole bunch of London foodies were having a touch of the croqueta sweats at the 2019 Croqueta Challenge at Ember Yard.

Hot Dinners was one of a panel of four judges - including World Restaurant Awards founder (and our host for the evening) Joe Warwick, BBC Food Magazine's Lulu Grimes and supper club host Martha De Lacey.

There had already been four

We're well into the food and drink awards season at the moment. Following the AA Awards earlier this week, we have the turn of The YBF's who held their awards do last night. The awards are there to recocgnise and champion upcoming British talent, with judges that included Marina O’Loughlin, Yotam Ottolenghi and James Knappett. 

• Alcohol - Lucy Do, The Dodo Micropub
• Chef - Santiago Lastra,

The annual AA Hospitality Awards took place at The Grosvenor last night, and a slew of London's chefs, restaurants and hotels picked up gongs for their good work this year.

The big winner of the night was Jason Atherton who was awarded Chef's Chef of the Year - a key award as it's voted for by his peers.

In a heartfelt post on Instagram Atherton said: "every now and again if you are lucky we get recognised and this happened last night to be

Waitrose has unleashed its latest Good Food Guide, and that means that it's time for another restaurant run-down as it comes with their top 50 restaurants in the country. And this year sees L'Enclume taking the top spot, just pipping London's Core by Clare Smyth, which was no 3 last year, to the top. In fact, the top three is just a light reshuffling, as last year's no 1, Nathan Outlaw, is now no 3.

It's

We're entering restaurant awards season but, before we even start, a new challenger has entered the ring. Deliveroo are starting their own restaurant awards - and it's not just limited to deliveries. 

They say they want to "shake up the sometimes stale approach to industry awards, bringing in fun new categories for a generation of social-media eaters". And to help them out with that, they've brought in Ashley Roberts (Waitress, Pussycat Dolls