Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia -- (SBWIRE) -- 12/04/2011 -- The best chefs and restaurateurs in Malaysia were at KLPac tonight to find out the winners of the Time Out Kuala Lumpur Food Awards 2011 – Malaysia’s biggest and highly respected awards for excellence in dining.

More than 400 of the most accomplished and respected names in the KL gastronomic scene attended the awards to find out the winning kitchens, restaurants, chefs and restaurateurs and to applaud their peers in 19 different categories.

Competition was fierce in the 18 categories, plus there was a brand new challenge in the “Blogger’s Choice Award”. Time Out KL invited several prominent food bloggers to write a review of the best place that they had eaten during 2011. These reviews were then posted online and visitors would cast their votes for the outlet AND the blogger, a brand new concept in voting and one that proved popular with voters and bloggers alike.

Ben’s took the prestigious New Restaurant of the Year Award, while Chef Nathalie Arbefeuille was voted the Outstanding Chef of the Year at the Time Out KL Food Awards 2011. The Best Fine Dining Restaurant Award was swept away by Cilantro while Benjamin Yong won the Restaurateur of the Year.

Time Out KL is proud to partner with American Express for the awards as a brand with a proven track record for supporting the best dining experiences around the world. American Express will offer Cardmembers special offers or experiences when they dine at Time Out KL Food Awards shortlisted outlets as part of the partnership, which is now running in its second year.

Time Out KL Editor Lim Chee Wah said, “Time Out magazine is firmly established in over 40 cities around the world. Many of these have their own Food Awards but here in Kuala Lumpur, ours is one of the biggest in the entire world. It’s wonderful to be able to put KL on the map as the top class food destination it is. However, the real purpose of the night is to acknowledge and acclaim the chefs and restaurateurs who work so hard for KLites, making us the food we eat three times – or more times a day. Every one of the attendees tonight have received many votes and have a warm place in the hearts of KLites. Tonight, we at Time Out KL salute them and urge them to keep up their outstanding efforts into 2012 and beyond.”

After the awards were announced, Mr. Graham Paling, Group MD of Mongoose, the publishers of Time Out Kuala Lumpur said, “These awards reward and celebrate dining excellence in the Klang Valley. They are the result of tens of thousands of votes cast by the cosmopolitan citizens of Kuala Lumpur. They are one of the biggest independent people’s choice awards and you can see that from the excitement and jubilation of the winners. We look forward to working on making these awards bigger and better, because the dining culture in KL is so vibrant and exciting but now our job is to work together with the industry and our valued partner American Express to make it even greater.”

Lim Su Ching, Head of American Express for Maybank expressed her happiness at the way the awards have grown. “We are delighted the Awards have generated so much interest and created even more enthusiasm among diners and restaurants in Kuala Lumpur. We are proud to be partner of this campaign to promote the diverse cuisines of our country and in the process promote Kuala Lumpur and Malaysia as a top destination for gastronomists and tourists,” said Lim.

Lim congratulated the winners and sees the Awards as benefiting both diners and the F&B industry. “We have seen this year’s award raising the bar of excellence and creativity among chefs and restaurants, which will improve the overall dining experience of patrons. Dining today has gone beyond just what is served on the platter. Providing a rewarding experience with added values to our customers has always been one of the core benefits that we deliver for American Express Cardmembers, and a commitment that we share with our restaurant merchant partners,’ added Lim.

A record number of votes were cast in the 2011 Time Out Kuala Lumpur food awards, nearly 50,000 over the five month voting period. This was up nearly 50% from 2010, reflecting the way that the awards have captured the public imagination.
Time Out Kuala Lumpur magazine also leveraged the awards night to celebrate its recent accomplishment of winning the Magazine Publishers Association Best Magazine Cover of the Year Award – the most prestigious award in Malaysian magazine publishing. Time Out is also the current holder of the world’s PPA Awards – the Oscars of the magazine industry – held in London, having scooped this prize in 2010 and 2011, largely for the work of Time Out magazines around the world in destinations such as Kuala Lumpur.

The results for the awards were kept a tight secret until the ceremony. Guests arrived with no knowledge of the winners in the respective categories. All Shortlisted outlets received thousands of votes, so all can rightly be considered as winners and display their certificates and trophies proudly for the next 12 months and beyond.

More than 400 restaurateurs, key players in the F&B industry, sponsors and local celebrities attended the glittering award ceremony at KLPac where the MCs for the evening, Daphne Iking and Dominic Lau presented each of the delighted 107 shortlisted outlets with their certificates and iconic trophy for the winners, along with representatives of Time Out Kuala Lumpur and American Express.

The guests were entertained by fire eaters, mimes, live tables, street magicians and a jazz quartet while they enjoyed some excellent food, spirits and wines before the start of the awards. The award ceremony started with an explosive performance by a Latin percussion band and a short presentation on the Awards by Time Out KL. After the awards the guests enjoyed some more food and wine to foot tapping music by DJ Faith.

Graham Paling concluded the evening by thanking all the guests for coming and sharing in the celebrations, before noting “It has been a wonderful evening, made possible by our presenting partners, American Express, Maybank- The sole merchant acquirer and card issuer for American Express Cards in Malaysia and all the intelligent, opinionated bloggers and readers, who took the time out to nominate their favourite restaurants."

About the Time Out KL Food Awards
The goal of the Time Out KL Food Awards is to contribute significantly towards raising the standards in cuisine, service and gastronomic innovation in Kuala Lumpur, as well as to acknowledge and acclaim those individuals and companies who have maintained high standards throughout the year.

Winners were chosen from shortlists in 19 categories, which were selected after an initial round of voting, so every outlet involved in the awards was chosen by real KLites who nominated their favourites and then selected a winner from the shortlist during a three month voting period on http://www.timeoutkl.com which boasts 500,000 unique visitors every month. Voting was heavily promoted in Time Out Kuala Lumpur magazine (readership 125,000 per month), on billboards across the city, and through targeted campaigns in the restaurants themselves.

About Mongoose
Mongoose is Malaysia’s fastest growing media house founded in 1997. They specialise in providing consumer publications (publisher of Time Out KL, Time Out Malaysia Guides, Expatriate Lifestyle, Golf Vacations, The Circular , Al Musafir and Esquire), web solutions, contract sales, contract publishing, creative marketing solutions, event management and PR. With a guiding principle of ‘Communicating with Integrity’, Mongoose utilises its international experience spanning three decades and succeeds in bringing editorial, design, marketing, PR, communications and web-based best practice to Malaysia.