The Savoy Gastronomes' Olive Barnett Award final extended

Due to delays in the restoration of The Savoy, The Savoy Gastronomes' Olive Barnett Award Final will now be held in September.

The closing date of the 1st application stage (Video Submissions) has also been extended to Tuesday, 6 April. The ceremony was due to take place in May.

The delay is due to much of the services infrastructure (water, heat and power) being in a far worse condition than they had anticipated and in most cases the pipeline and electrical networks had to be completely replaced, which is extremely invasive work. 

Secondly, the restructuring works peeled back layers of history, revealing original design elements that had been hidden for decades, and it was important that these were either protected or, in some cases, incorporated into the new designs.

Employees below 30 years of age, who work in one of the customer facing roles in the hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism industry, are being invited to enter the accolade.

Entrants are asked to submit a two minute video of themselves, speaking about a specified subject. From these entries a shortlist of 30 will be selected to then submit a 750 word report.

The winner of the award will receive a career development grant, kindly donated by the Savoy Educational Trust, of £1,750 per year for two years and will also spend a week on the Lausanne Executive Education Summer Programme, kindly donated by the Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne, Switzerland. They will also be invited to join the judging panel for 2011.

Virginia Masser of The Savoy Gastronomes stated: "We are more than happy to move the Award Final to September so that The Savoy Gastronomes' Olive Barnett Award 2010 is an integral part of re-opening of the iconic The SAVOY hotel. As a result, the deadline will be extended and we look forward to more entries continuing to arrive."

Words: Maria Bracken

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