In the past decade, we learned what we liked when it came to food. And we liked a lot more, we discovered, than just the food we had enjoyed growing up. From tagine to tempura, carpaccio to cassoulet, we not only enjoyed these dishes when we travelled, but began to expect them on restaurant menus and wished to create them ourselves. Such raised expectations and elevated ambitions caused us to make celebrities of our chefs. Not just the ones on the telly, but the ones we knew by name, by their signature dishes, by their countrywide reputation. From the quality home-cooking of Darina Allen to the more chi-chi efforts of her daughter-in-law, Rachel, pictured right; from the elegant fine-dining of Kevin Thornton to the approachable flair of Neven Maguire; from the Gallic finesse of Trish Deseine to the Meath robustness of Richard Corrigan. In recent years, chefs became our heroes, and here, LIFE offers you the opportunity to crown the celebrity king or queen of the kitchen.

Last week, we launched the Oscars of the dining-out industry, the Santa Rita/LIFE Magazine Irish Restaurant Awards 2009. This re-imagined take on the decade-old Irish Restaurant Awards not only offers Irish diners the chance to vote for the very first time -- and the chance to win some impressive prizes -- but also features a new category that speaks of Ireland's very modern attitude to chefs. The LIFE magazine best celebrity chef award speaks of our first-name relationship with the contenders, but also of how au fait we are with a broad range of foods and flavours. The choice of winner will say a lot about what and who we value in cooking today.

On the opposite page is a voting coupon, with which you can vote in a selection of the Santa Rita/LIFE Magazine Irish Restaurant Awards 2009 categories. In the categories of best restaurant, best chef, best casual dining, best gastro-pub and best customer service, you get to nominate a range of stand-out performers and then, in the LIFE magazine best celebrity chef category, there is a suggested list of possible winners. The diversity of the modern Irish palate is there to be seen in the list of people the Irish public has elevated to celebrity status. It's not just about Michelin stars, or a television profile, or highly successful cookbooks: it's about quality, and a pursuit of excellence that is present in each of the suggested celebs. In cooking, more than any other arena, it's not possible to be famous just for being famous.

When you use the voting coupon opposite, your vote will be counted, collated and added to the votes of the Restaurants Assocciation of Ireland (RAI) members from around the country. Then, a shortlist will be compiled and presented to a judging panel that includes LIFE's Ernie Whalley and Lucinda O'Sullivan. The panel will pick the winners, and those victorious will receive their prizes at a glitzy black-tie dinner in the Burlington Hotel on May 13, attended by the great and good of Irish cooking, and with a meal prepared by Oliver Dunne of Bon Appetit, Neven Maguire of MacNean House and Restaurant, Derry Clarke of l'Ecrivain and Ross Lewis of Chapter One, among others.

But the chefs and their respective establishments won't be the only winners; there is the chance for LIFE readers to reap the rewards too, over all three weeks of voting. Once you enter your vote, your coupon makes you eligible for three impressive and exciting prizes. Every week, there will be two draws: one boasts the prize of two tickets to the foodies' Oscar night, with an overnight in the Burlington; while the other is the treat of a meal for four, cooked by one of Ireland's top celebrity chefs. Furthermore, coupons from the three weeks of voting will be entered into an overall draw for the prize of a wine-tasting trip for two to the Bordeaux region of France. There is no limit on the number of times you can vote (although you need a new voting coupon every time) which means you can push your favourite eaterie or celeb chef as much as you want, and increase your chances of winning one of the fabulous prizes at the same time.

Always, thanks to our mammies and to high-quality home-produced ingredients, Irish people have had an understanding of good food. What we have only come to understand in recent years, however, is that our palates are amenable to more than the flavours we were reared on. While due in part to travel and a bit more cash for dining out, it's also down to the high-profile cooks who have shared their passion and their talent.

And, in that spirit, two more of Ireland's top chefs take over LIFE's recipe pages this week. Neven Maguire gives a recipe for a zingy Vietnamese-style chicken salad, while Oliver Dunne makes a fish pie -- both recipes are exceptional, but, nonetheless, well within the ability of most domestic cooks.

So, take this opportunity to give something back to your favourite celebrity chef. Vote as many times as you wish and, if you don't want to cast your ballot but would like to dine out for less, use the coupon below to get 20 per cent off your next meal in any participating RAI establishment. There's reward for everyone here, but your vote is crucial in deciding who gets the big awards at the eating Oscars.

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Sarah Caden