Our Values 

Diversity
The Taste Talks Food & Drink Awards seek to recognize the incredible diversity in the food and drink world by celebrating the many backgrounds, stories and identities of the individuals that make up our community. We are committed to building an awards program that is inclusive and diverse.

Culture
The Taste Talks Food & Drink Awards understand that today, food and drink touch every piece of culture, from music and technology to social good and art. We are committed to taking a wide angle view on the food and drink world and incorporating as many aspects of culture as possible into our awards program. 

Innovation
The Taste Talks Food & Drink Awards are forward-thinking, open-minded and committed to celebrating the innovation and ingenuity of today’s food and drink world. 

Transparency
The Taste Talks Food & Drink Awards are committed to a transparent submission and voting process. The submission process is open to the public. We publicly list all of our voting academy members, who are responsible for participating in both rounds of voting. 

Voting Procedures

The Tasty Awards voting process contains three steps.

Step 1: Open Call for Submissions
During the first step, submissions are open to the general public in all award categories. Anyone may submit up to one submission for each category. Participants may submit themselves for an award. Taste Talks staff and academy members are not prohibited from providing submissions, including submissions for themselves. At the conclusion of the open call for submissions, Taste Talks reviews submissions to ensure that each submission accurately falls within the definition of its category. 

Step 2: Submissions Voted Into Nominees
Within each category, up to 10 submissions are presented to the academy. Submissions with the highest submission count are most heavily weighted. Categories where there are insufficient valid submissions are reviewed by Taste Talks and submissions are added when necessary with a focus on ensuring diversity among the submissions. The Academy is presented with an anonymous Round 1 Voting Ballot. The academy is allowed to vote for up to 5 submissions in each category. The 5 submissions with the highest number of votes become the nominees in each category. The nominees are then announced to the public.

Step 3: Nominees Voted Into Winners
Part 1: The public is presented with an anonymous Round 1 Voting Ballot containing the nominees in each category.  Each person may vote for a single winner in each category.

Part 2: The Academy is presented with an anonymous Round 2 Voting Ballot containing the top 5 nominees in each category. Each member may vote for a single winner in each category. The nominee with the most votes in each category becomes the winner.

The winners are announced publicly at the live awards ceremony.