Celebrating the best in street food from across the country, Dubai Street Food Awards will be will be a celebration of street food in the United Arab Emirates and hosted for the first time in 2018. The awards will recognise street food vendors and participants in all street food events and venues across the UAE. Through these awards, voted for by a jury of leading food bloggers and entrepreneurs, the organisers, Catchme Events and Market Buzz, hope to set new benchmarks for this sector and push new boundaries across the region, giving this growing movement the fillip it needs.
Sherif Abaza, co-founder of Catchme Events and the co-founder of Streetnights for the past three years, said, “Street food is integral part of every person’s food journey no matter where they come from. In this melting pot that is UAE, we are spoilt for choice whether it’s the shawarma and falafel or the more ubiquitous burger or some churros to spoil us. Over the past few years, the street food scene in Dubai has blossomed and it is time for some serious recognition, which is why we wanted to introduce the Dubai Street Food Awards.”
The criteria for nominations are:
- Must be a homegrown brand: it can be regional (anywhere in the Middle East) but can’t be part of an International Franchise or have a Hotel affiliation
- Must be in operation for a minimum 6 months by the date of the awards
- Registered UAE Business
All submissions will be online. All nominations will be initially screened for eligibility according to the criteria. The final eligible submissions will be submitted to the jury for their evaluation and scored over two rounds: first based on the nomination documents and finally winners will be chosen based on a final visit to the short list and a tasting.
Mita Srinivasan, director at Market Buzz and a community supporter, said, “We are very lucky to have the support of some of the stalwarts in the food blogging and reporting sector as well as entrepreneurs that know what it is to set up a food business and make it work. The jury will remain anonymous to make sure that it is fair throughout the process. We will reveal the jurors once the winners have been selected around the end of February 2018.”
A final short list in each category will be announced in January when a second round of judging will commence. Voting in the Fan Favourite category will open in February asking for votes from some of the judges’ favourites. Winners will be announced during the Dubai Food Festival.
Nominations can be submitted on https://goo.gl/forms/
