ChefsBest is a privately owned independent judging organization dedicated to recognizing and honoring America’s best food

Food

Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals...

 and food-related products. The mission of ChefsBest is to evaluate products using a panel of expert and highly trained judges, and to choose the best using a process that is unbiased

Bias

Bias is an inclination to present or hold a partial perspective at the expense of alternatives. Bias can come in many forms.-In judgement and decision making:...

 and quantitative

Quantitative property

A quantitative property is one that exists in a range of magnitudes, and can therefore be measured with a number. Measurements of any particular quantitative property are expressed as a specific quantity, referred to as a unit, multiplied by a number. Examples of physical quantities are distance,...

.

Product awards

Only one product in each of the hundreds of categories of food and food-related products can receive an award. If the category does not include a superior product that wins by a statistical margin, no award is made. Award winners may enter into an agreement with ChefsBest to display the award on the product packaging.

There are three types of ChefsBest Awards: The ChefsBest Award for Best Taste, The ChefsBest Award for Performance and The ChefsBest Certified Award. The ChefsBest Award for Best Taste is an award for the best tasting product in a food category. The ChefsBest Certified Award is recognition of the quality of a product that may be a one-of-a-kind in a product category where competitive judging is not indicated. The ChefsBest Award for Performance recognizes the best performing non-food product used in a kitchen

Kitchen

A kitchen is a room or part of a room used for cooking and food preparation.In the West, a modern residential kitchen is typically equipped with a stove, a sink with hot and cold running water, a refrigerator and kitchen cabinets arranged according to a modular design. Many households have a...

. This includes items like small appliances

Small appliance

Small appliance refers to a class of home appliances that are portable or semi-portable or which are used on tabletops, countertops, or other platforms in the United States of America...

, paper and food storage

Food storage

Food storage is both a traditional domestic skill and is important industrially. Food is stored by almost every human society and by many animals...

 products.

Judging process

The judging process takes place at the ChefsBest Center for Taste in San Francisco. This center is an educational facility as well as a judging center where food professionals are able to learn about the sensory and flavor aspects of taste

Taste

Taste is one of the traditional five senses. It refers to the ability to detect the flavor of substances such as food, certain minerals, and poisons, etc....

. ChefsBest proprietary judging methodology is based on a Sensory Attribute Quality Analysis (SAQA). This assures that the step by step judging process is objective and quantitative.

This judging methodology is unique. SAQA was developed by food industry

Food industry

The food production is a complex, global collective of diverse businesses that together supply much of the food energy consumed by the world population...

 leaders and sensory experts and is based on criteria used in the food industry to evaluate sensory and flavor

Flavor

Flavor or flavour is the sensory impression of a food or other substance, and is determined mainly by the chemical senses of taste and smell. The "trigeminal senses", which detect chemical irritants in the mouth and throat as well as temperature and texture, are also very important to the overall...

 aspects of the product. All chefs involved in the judging process have a culinary degree and an average of 20 years experience as an executive chef. In addition, each is certified as a "Master Taster", which requires a palate

Palate

The palate is the roof of the mouth in humans and other mammals. It separates the oral cavity from the nasal cavity. A similar structure is found in crocodilians, but, in most other tetrapods, the oral and nasal cavities are not truly separate. The palate is divided into two parts, the anterior...

 acuity test and being trained and certified in SAQA judging methodology. Panels of certified judges are led through the SAQA judging process by professional certified panel moderators. Quantitative and qualitative data from the judging process are entered into proprietary software

Proprietary software

Proprietary software is computer software licensed under exclusive legal right of the copyright holder. The licensee is given the right to use the software under certain conditions, while restricted from other uses, such as modification, further distribution, or reverse engineering.Complementary...

that insures the integrity of the judging process.