The full list of finalists can be found here, and includes last year’s top 5 chefs – Joan Roca (Spain), Rene Redzepi (Denmark), David Muñoz (Spain), Björn Frantzén (Sweden) and Jonnie Boer (The Netherlands) – alongside a host of other familiar names from previous editions.
The list of finalists also welcomes an exciting number of new entries, such as Victor Arguinzoniz and Eduard Xatruch, Oriol Castro and Mateu Casañas from Spain; David Chang and Kyle Connaughton from the USA; Adeline Grattard and Guy Savoy from France; Zaiyu Hasegawa, Hiroyasu Kawate and Seiji Yamamoto from Japan; Paul Cunningham from the UK; Anatoly Kazakow from Russia; Pia Leon and Mitsuharu ‘Micha’ Tsumura from Peru as well as Edgar Núñez and Daniela Soto-Innes from Mexico.
From the 1st of August onwards, voting for The Best Chef Fol-LOVERS Award will open. This is a special award category open to the community of followers of The Best Chef. The foodie community will have one month to vote online for their favorite chefs via The Best Chef Awards website.
The Award Gala with the announcement of 2019’s winners will take place at the University of Barcelona in collaboration with the Catalonia Tourism Agency. Tickets for the Gala are available via https://www.thebestchefawards.com/tickets
Renewed Award Categories
In the 2019 edition of The Best Chef Awards, the accolades will be presented in nine categories:
- The Best Chef Award Top 100
- The Best Chef City Gourmet Award
- The Best Chef Rising Star Award
- The Best Chef Fol-LOVERS Award
- The Best Chef Pastry Award
- The Best Chef FoodArt Award
- The Best Chef New Entry Award
- The Best Chef Voted by Chef Award
- The Best Chef Legend Award
Last year’s The Best Chef Lady Award category will not be included in the 2019 Awards, explains Cristian Gadau, Creative Director at The Best Chef Awards: “We decided to cancel the Lady Chef Award, as we believe this is necessary in order to create a selection of the 100 best chefs in the world without any reference to gender or ethnicity, but only by considering meritocratic credits and the votes of cooks and professionals. Nevertheless, the past winners Chantel Dartnall (2017, Warsaw) and Emma Bengtsson (2018, Milan), are two great professionals who will always keep a special place in our history.”
Food Meets Science Conference
Another novelty of this year’s Best Chef Awards event program is the ‘Food Meets Science’ symposium powered by Estrella Damm. This conference will take place in Barcelona on the 23rd of September at The Old Estrella Damm Brewery. The goal of this event is to create an exchange between science and cooking, giving insight into what actually happens in the brain when food is consumed, and how the brain influences food choices.
Confirmed speakers are for this event include fellow scientists Prof. Charles Spence, creator of the term gastrophysic and head of the Crossmodal Research Laboratory at Oxford University; Dr. Nicola Pirastu representing the University of Edinburgh and Dr. Paul Smeets from the University Medical Center Utrecht, as well as renewed Chefs Grant Achatz, Modest Amaro, Pia Leon, Vladimir Mukhin, Davide Oldani and Joan Roca.
For more information on this interdisciplinary project, visit https://www.foodmeetsscience.com/ or https://www.facebook.com/foodmeetsscience/
For more information on The Best Chef Awards, visit their website or social media platforms (Facebook or Instagram).