Last Tuesday was a bad night to eat out at any of the world’s most cutting edge restaurants
Most of the elite chefs had left their kitchens to find out where their.establishments ranked in the latest World’s 50 Best Restaurants list
They’d swapped whites for cocktail dresses and DJs and were dancing to a 1980s tribute band in Bilbao’s football stadium and despite
the intensity of the competition in what has become the most anticipated and coveted, if controversial, ranking among chefs, the mood was of true camaraderie
The list started as a bit of.a lark in the office of industry title Restaurant Magazine
Since its inception in 2002, it has become its own enterprise, now owned by publishers William Reed with the awards held in
a rock-star sized stadium.But if you’re not an elite chef, or you prefer to eat out on your local high street rather than in a high-concept dining room, why should you
care? Well, W50B’s influence in changing the way we think about food has been phenomenal, even if we never visit any of their top 50
Who beyond an inner chef coterie would.otherwise have heard of Ferran Adria’s El Bulli, (the first winner) that helped spur the global influence of Spanish avant-garde cooking and the kind of theatrical, multi-course, high-end menus the 50
Best continues to prominently reward.Noma, run by an idealist chef, Rene Redzepi, who loves to forage, was “discovered” by the W50B, thus kick-starting the whole new Nordic culinary movement
Just as the.high-end looks that appear on fashion-week catwalks eventually trickle down to the high street, so the dishes championed by such awards slowly filter into the restaurant mainstream
This year Osteria Francescana in.Modena, Italy, regained the number one spot.Massimo Bottura is its chef patron
Significantly, it was his wife, Lara Gilmore, CEO of their Food for Soul projects (for recovering otherwise waste food into
dignified meals at their global Reffertorio), who made the first acceptance speech
While it is gratifying to see a woman take the stage in the #MeToo climate, it highlighted the uncomfortable fact
that only three of the restaurants on the W50B list are run by a female chef.It seems perverse too that the voters should have previously awarded Best Female Chef to Dominique
Crenn, Nadia Santini and Anne-Sophie Pic, yet none of their restaurants figure on this year’s 50 Best
Why qualify the work and talent of women with a different standard?  By comparison,
New York’s ultra-prestigious James Beard Foundation awarded 11 out of 16 culinary awards to women earlier this year
There are questions, too, about what may influence the W50B judges as to where.they visit
Why are there no British restaurants – such as L’Enclume, the two-Michelin-star restaurant in Cartmel, Cumbria – beyond London? Compounding the lack of diversity, more than 50 per cent of
the restaurants are in Europe; the African continent is barely acknowledged.W50B’s detractors say it has become too big and full of pomp
This year’s event had reams of red carpet, flame-effect light.shows and there were posters and giant wooden spoons on display all over Bilbao
In its defence, chefs say that it is a friendly event.“We work so hard, we rarely have time
to socialise with our colleagues,” says Clare Smyth.Smyth won the best female chef 2018, yet highly contentiously, Core by Clare Smyth was not ranked within the top 50 restaurants
Naturally, there are.competitor awards.In the US, former music-industry CEO Steve Plotnicki started out by sharing his lifelong interest in food on his blog
Eleven years ago, he asked 175 of the most responsive followers.of said blog to pick their best restaurants in North America and Europe
Since then he has expanded the aptly named Opinionated about Dining list, which rounds up the top 100 of
what he and a database of self-selected global voters think are the top restaurants in each region
The majority of its voters are not heavyweights within the industry, rather regular working professionals
who are super enthusiastic about eating out and have the finances to do so.OAD is now based on 160,000 reviews contributed to by more than 4,500 people, thus covering a far
broader spectrum of restaurants.Proving that, in the food industry at least, the appetite for best-ofs seems insatiable, is another new award launching next year
IMG, the company behind the worldwide Taste festivals,.is even promising TV coverage
Its founders say it will be similar to the Oscars with categories that will be inspected and judged by a 100 strong panel, apparently with near perfect
gender equality.It won’t be a list format and it promises to shake things up with more unusual awards including for “the chef who stays in their kitchen rather than going around
the world to food congresses” and “the best chef with no tattoos”. controversial, ranking among chefs, the mood was of true camaraderie
The list started as a bit of a lark in.the office of industry title Restaurant Magazine
Since its inception in 2002, it has become its own enterprise, now owned by publishers William Reed with the awards held in a rock-star sized
stadium.But if you’re not an elite chef, or you prefer to eat out on your local high street rather than in a high-concept dining room, why should you care? Well, W50B’s
influence in changing the way we think about food has been phenomenal, even if we never visit any of their top 50
Who beyond an inner chef coterie would otherwise have heard.of Ferran Adria’s El Bulli, (the first winner) that helped spur the global influence of Spanish avant-garde cooking and the kind of theatrical, multi-course, high-end menus the 50 Best continues to
prominently reward.Noma, run by an idealist chef, Rene Redzepi, who loves to forage, was “discovered” by the W50B, thus kick-starting the whole new Nordic culinary movement
Just as the high-end looks that.appear on fashion-week catwalks eventually trickle down to the high street, so the dishes championed by such awards slowly filter into the restaurant mainstream
This year Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy, regained.the number one spot.Massimo Bottura is its chef patron
Significantly, it was his wife, Lara Gilmore, CEO of their Food for Soul projects (for recovering otherwise waste food into dignified meals at
their global Reffertorio), who made the first acceptance speech.While it is gratifying to see a woman take the stage in the #MeToo climate, it highlighted the uncomfortable fact that only three
of the restaurants on the W50B list are run by a female chef.It seems perverse too that the voters should have previously awarded Best Female Chef to Dominique Crenn, Nadia Santini
and Anne-Sophie Pic, yet none of their restaurants figure on this year’s 50 Best.Why qualify the work and talent of women with a different standard?  By comparison, New York’s ultra-prestigious
James Beard Foundation awarded 11 out of 16 culinary awards to women earlier this year
There are questions, too, about what may influence the W50B judges as to where they visit
Why are.there no British restaurants - such as L’Enclume, the two-Michelin-star restaurant in Cartmel, Cumbria - beyond London? Compounding the lack of diversity, more than 50 per cent of the restaurants are
in Europe; the African continent is barely acknowledged.W50B’s detractors say it has become too big and full of pomp
This year’s event had reams of red carpet, flame-effect light shows and there.were posters and giant wooden spoons on display all over Bilbao
In its defence, chefs say that it is a friendly event.“We work so hard, we rarely have time to socialise with
our colleagues,” says Clare Smyth.Smyth won the best female chef 2018, yet highly contentiously, Core by Clare Smyth was not ranked within the top 50 restaurants
Naturally, there are competitor awards.In the.US, former music-industry CEO Steve Plotnicki started out by sharing his lifelong interest in food on his blog
Eleven years ago, he asked 175 of the most responsive followers of said blog.to pick their best restaurants in North America and Europe
