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Alain Passard, three-Michelin starred legend and perennial award winner with the writer Leiti Hsu in Singapore last month. His 2019 accolades include the World Restaurant Award's"Instagram Account of the Year" and the World's 50 Best"Chefs' ChoiceFor as thankless as the work can be on days when chefs don’t wake up to the red carpet, when the WRA emerged, I saw it as an additional chance to gather to celebrate one another.
Today, what started off intending to assess excellence and ‘best’ have become more than just about the food and service. Any organization offering culinary recognition is now held accountable for what’s top of mind in the industry and the wider news, spurred by post-#MeToo and #TimesUp sentiment. The winners are determined by public nomination process that’s then whittled down by anonymous judges; it reacted in whiplash fashion, a show of delayed but necessary progress.in an intimate, spot-on piece for the New Yorker, who commented that numbers aside, the vibe was “less rigid, less bro-filled, less air-kissy, and more real.
In 2018, despite a broader cultural shift toward more inclusivity following decreased tolerance for bad male behavior, the World’s 50 Best remained stagnant—and faced much criticism for that. It turned out this year’s 50 Best list did finally feel different. There were noticeably more shuffles, climbs and new entrants in the top 50 than years past.
Unfortunately, the task of boiling down what’s the ‘best’ today is going to take more numerous and nuanced measures than the professional impartiality of audit by a management consulting firm. While it’s one part of a fair effort to do a ‘best’ list right, that bit felt like a crutch in 2018 when 50 Best was tardy to react to a more woke world.
Lara Gilmore, business and life partner of chef Massimo Bottura's, with writer Leiti Hsu, at this year's World's 50 Best in Singapore. Their restaurant Osteria Francescana has been repeat No. 1.Still, today, in the year 2019, it’s impossible that in his wholehearted quest for impartiality that we end up with this result—that the top 50 list of chefs in the world have nearly zero women on it.