Good Food Guide to be given 'new lease of life' following purchase

The Good Food Guide will be given ‘a new lease of life’ after being acquired by hospitality membership network CODE Hospitality.

A revamped digital offering will be developed for the guide, which will continue to be edited by Elizabeth Carter, following its purchase from Waitrose & Partners.

Earlier this year Waitrose & Partners, which bought the guide from Which? in 2013, said it had no plans to publish future additions.

CODE founder Adam Hyman said: “I’ve long respected the Good Food Guide in continuing to not only champion hospitality but to publish authoritative, reliable guides year-on-year since 1951.

“I’m excited to now own such an iconic brand that we can evolve under respected editor Elizabeth Carter, with her extensive experience as an inspector and knowledge of restaurants. We will continue to produce a 2022 Guide at a time when the industry needs championing most as it recovers after the pandemic.”

He added that inspectors would continue to dine anonymously, with their bills being paid in full by the guide, and inclusion being judged on merit.

Carter added: “A new lease of life - what a great 70th birthday present for the Good Food Guide. It’s been a gruelling time for the restaurant business and after watching from the side lines for 19 months I’m thrilled to be getting back to work. For the very first time the guide will be part of a community for the hospitality industry and I’m looking forward to experiencing fresh thinking, discussing new ideas and, of course, eating some delicious food.”

Martin George, director of customer at Waitrose & Partners said the supermarket would continue to stock the Good Food Guide and “look at ways we can support it through our marketing channels”.

The Good Food Guide was founded in 1951 by journalist Raymond Postgate, who was so appalled at the state of food in Britain in the that he launched the Good Food Club, which he initially called the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Food.

Postgate recruited an army of volunteers to clandestinely visit restaurants and their reports were compiled to make the first edition of the guide, which sold 5,000 copies.

While the debut edition included 600 entries, the most recently published 2020 guide had 1,200.

Waitrose & Partners announced it would not publish its 2021 edition in September last year, saying the Covid-19 pandemic left it unable to "fairly or accurately" reflect the industry.