EVALUATION criteria
There are 3 main areas of simple prerequisites for any restaurant. If one of them is not followed, the evaluation is negative. Otherwise the evaluation goes according to the following criteria.
1CLEANLINESS
A restaurant which applies should definitely:
- Have perfect cleanliness in the manufacturing, catering, food displays and storage areas.
- Follow hygienic regulations (or any modification of hygienic regulation, however they are called in each country) but with one condition: PERFECT CLEANLINESS
- Staff should adhere to the conditions of personal hygiene.
Assessors review is not replacing the control of the responsible authorities. It is a control like the one that a customer does – “Cleanliness control like the customer sees it”. In this control the restaurant must be categorized as clean.
2TASTING TEST
The purpose of the tasting test is to find out that the cuisine offered at the restaurant is decent and accepted as a local traditional cuisine.
The assessors look at the tasty result. They adjudge positively if the food is acceptable, local, traditional/special and decent.
A good tasting result can be negatively evaluated in the extreme case when the service is bad or slow, or the dish presentation is too bad.
The assessors do not rate the food, they simply decide whether it passes or it does not pass, ensuring that the restaurant does not serve bad food.
The assessors take into account for the tasty result that the food is served as hot as it has to be, it is made with good quality ingredients, and the food is fresh. The assessors also check the correct execution of recipes which are referred in the catalogue with their traditional/special name. Therefore, if the restaurant does not follow the right food preparation or it does not use the right ingredients, it should not mention the dish with its traditional/special name in the catalogue.
Special care is provided for restaurants that serve creative traditional/special cuisine. In this case, the evaluation is carried out by a selected group of special assessors. The need for a special evaluation is find out from the catalogue which is attached at the application. In case of creative cuisine, in order to characterize as a local traditional cuisine, dishes should be based on classic flavors of traditional local cuisine.
Good food is the most important reason to certify a restaurant.3INSTRUCTIONS
There are five directives that take into account the category and the type of a restaurant. The assessors score each one and the restaurant must amass at least 70/100.
If the restaurant satisfies the obligatory terms of the standard and passes the tasting test, then it is evaluated in a series of instructions. In this evaluation, it counts the type, the category and the size of the restaurant.
3.1.MENU
The menu is evaluated on the following points:
- Originality – the restaurant’s attempt to include traditional local recipes which are typical for the area and they are not very common, in a way that differs from other restaurants in its area.
- If there is a translation it has to be right.
- The catalogue must explain the dishes, mentioning the origin, the basic ingredients and the way of the production, especially if it is addressed to non-local customers.
- The aesthetics of the catalogue.
For the program, the menu is important, while the catalogue is not. By this meaning, if a restaurant cooks three meals every day and presents them on a blackboard, it is completely respected. However, originality is essential because it leads to the search and the rescue of the tradition, that’s why assessed with 20 points out of a total of 45 for this guideline. After the originality it follows the catalogue interpretation which assessed with 10 points, interpretation is very important especially for the restaurants with foreigner customers. The explanation of the dishes assessed with 9 points and the aesthetics of the catalogue assessed with 6 points.
As an aesthetic we mean that the catalogue must not be dirty or inelegant at a point that is disturbing.
3.2.SERVICE
The waiters (if any) must be informed about the food and the wines which the restaurant offers. The network will aim to contribute to this process through educational programs, but this does not relieve the restaurant owner from the obligation to train his staff about the ingredients and the origins of traditional dishes, the wines origin and the year of their production.
3.3.Storefront, space, aesthetics
The storefront, the decoration and the furnishing should not be of a low aesthetics and cheap material value.
Plastic dishes, cheap plastic seats, cheap plastic plants, consists a reason for a negative evaluation. Smells and kitchen noises are unacceptable in luxury restaurants. The purpose of this instruction is to evaluate whether a restaurant provides a pleasant and a good quality environment.
The assessors do not judge the decoration or its cost but they are asked to answer the two following questions:
- Has the restaurant a pleasant environment?
- Would I come back with my company for food?
A restaurant needs to score at least 70/100 in the evaluation.