Was chef Oliver Dunne right to criticise the judging process of the Restaurant Association of Ireland awards - and boycott the ceremony, asks FIONA MCCANN

IT ALL BEGAN when Michelin star chef Oliver Dunne of Bon Appétit in Malahide withdrew himself this week from the annual Irish Restaurant Awards ceremony. In an e-mail to all members of the Restaurants Association of Ireland, which was behind the event, Dunne said he believed the awards "have lost all integrity".

The process, published on the RAI website and detailed to all its members, involves preliminary public and industry nominations, then a second phase (worth 30 per cent of the overall marks) scored by a mystery guest diner, paid for by the restaurants themselves, through a voucher submitted only at the end of the meal after the diners have finished.

Though Dunne says his restaurant's "mystery diner" was easily identifiable, he had a bigger issue with the 30 per cent decided by public vote. He is strongly critical of the way the votes were accumulated, and says the RAI sent out several e-mails urging their members to campaign for votes. "They were making it out like they were working for you, but they were promoting themselves."

RAI chief executive Adrian Cummins defends the judging process, though he acknowledges that the organisation "advised our members how you could encourage the consumer to be aware of your restaurant", through Facebook, Twitter, or posters provided to the restaurants. He says the idea was "to encourage the consumer to nominate, engaging the consumer in the process". Dunne sees it differently: "I just thought, 'this is an absolute joke, we're just tricking the public into voting'."

A further 30 per cent of the tally came from a panel of what Cummins describes as industry experts, including several food writers. "To my knowledge, the vast majority of them have never set foot in my restaurant since the day it opened in 2006," says Dunne, adding that "the judging panel is there to over-ride the secret diner, to over-ride the public vote, and to give it to who they want to give it to."

The remaining 10 per cent of the tally is based on the restaurant's menu. While Dunne derides that element of the process - "maybe font size and design is the order of the day here" - Cummins defends it, saying menus were judged on their information about the origin and provenance of produce, and how many local and artisan suppliers are used.

"I stand over the process 100 per cent," says Cummins. "And our door is always open for consultation on 2011."

Dunne, who had been nominated in the Best Chef category, is unconvinced. "I know how the machine works. I just didn't want to stand on that stage if I'd won the award, shaking my hand in triumph."

So how should restaurant awards be judged? The Food & Wine MagazineRestaurant of the Year Awards also begin with readers' nominations, which are shortlisted by a panel of judges who decide the winners based on points allocated in various categories. The overall winners are decided by secret ballot.

"We believe there are checks and balances in there to allow for when a greasy spoon in God-knows-where gets all their mates to nominate them. Then the judging panel can say that's an anomaly," says Food & Wine Magazineeditor Ross Golden-Bannon.

In contrast, Georgina Campbell's annual restaurant awards are judged without any public input. "Once you get into the business of people voting, there's always the possibility of things being rigged, a possibility of abuse of the system," she says, but adds the company would reconsider if they found a way to ensure the process was accountable.

Campbell's awards are entirely based on feedback from a number of freelance food critics and from Campbell herself. Each critic dines anonymously, booking under a false name if their name is recognisable. "Everything is done to keep it as a consumer response," she says.

Campbell worries that the ubiquity of restaurant awards may make it difficult for consumers to discern between one award and another. "I find it upsetting there are now so many, and I don't know how the public can tell the difference."

She is sympathetic to some of Dunne's criticisms. "It would be reasonable to draw the conclusion this is as much a marketing exercise for the RAI as it is for anything else," she says. She does, however, defend the existence of awards. "The point about it is that awards, properly run, really do have an effect on standards. There's no question about that."

For restaurateur Máire Flynn of the Tannery Restaurant in Dungarvan, Co Waterford, whose husband Paul Flynn won Best Chef in the Munster category at the Irish Restaurant awards, the whole awards controversy is "the biggest storm in a teacup I've heard in a long time . . . It's a bit of crack. You go out, you put your nice dress on, you meet everyone else, you have a great old night, and I don't really see that there's any more to it than that."