The 6th edition of The Best Chef Awards is taking place from the 18th till 20th of September. This is the global culinary highlight of the year. This year the awards will take place in the beautiful city of Madrid; a city which proudly boasts three of their own on the main list of “The Best Chef”. The awards programme consists of three days in which the crème de la crème of the culinary world – including chefs, journalists, gastronomes, restauranteurs and writers – will gather to celebrate the best in the industry culminating in the official gala awards ceremony scheduled for the evening of Tuesday the 20th of September.

So, what exactly is The Best Chef Awards? And how does it all work?

What is The Best Chef?

The Best Chef is a vibrant, world community of passionate food lovers. A project dedicated to celebrating the many talented chefs that create the best food experiences around the world, as well as being a global family of like-minded individuals that share culinary adventures. A common space where the old guard shares the core of the craft with the next generation, who in return inspires new ways of thinking.

Who created The Best Chef?

Polish neuroscientist Joanna Slusarczyk and Italian gastronomist Cristian Gadau, in 2015.

Why The Best Chef?

The Best Chef’s goal is to globally unite the best thinkers and leaders in the world of gastronomy and fine dining and highlight their process. Not only to their peers, but to everybody, also as examples for future generations who can learn and build on their ideas.

How does The Best Chef obtain, curate and share knowledge?

Throughout the years The Best Chef has created different ways of uniting the foremost within gastronomy by offering a solid platform where chefs can bring knowledge and experience to the table, offer inspiration and create debate. Moreover, The Best Chef brings cultures together through food, technology, sustainability, trends, ingredients, expertise, science, and most of all, the humans who make it happen through their own experiences.

The Best Chefs Awards, Area Talks, Food Meets Science, its social media and website all work as a massive melting pot of information available for everyone that is interested in the culinary world.

When was the Best Chef Awards created?

In 2017, The Best Chef expanded its offering by creating the The Best Chef Awards: a ranking list focused on chefs. The awards were initially held in Warsaw in 2017, in Milan in 2018, Barcelona in 2019 , in 2020 virtually over three days due to the global pandemic and in 2021 in Amsterdam.

What sets The Best Chef Awards apart from other culinary ranking lists?

The Best Chef put people first: THE CHEFS. The gastronomic world often focuses on the restaurant or the location; The Best Chef tries to shift that, highlighting the chef, his or her approach to food and what makes them stand out from the crowd.

What is The Best Chef Awards’ voting process? How does it work?

First, there is a shortlist of 200 nominees. These include 100 “fresh faces” as well the Top 100 from the previous edition that are automatically nominated again. The 100 fresh faces list is shortlisted through a group of 120 anonymous professionals (this year) who through their travels scour the world and discover talents.

The professionals include food journalists, critics, bloggers, photographers and other notable people with a broad knowledge of fine dining. They are all experts within the industry, and their choices for each of the fresh faces comes with an explanation as to why they recommend them.

The shortlist of all 200-chef nominees is announced every year at the end of April.

Voting:

The second task is to rank the final Top 100 from the shortlist of 200. This ranking is created by votes from the 120 professionals as well as the current ranking Top 100 chefs and the 100 new candidates.

The Top 100 is a way of showcasing chefs – where they can pay respects to their peers and therefore the group of professionals has a lower voting power. Chefs’ votes make up 70% of the final result; professionals’ votes make up 30% of the final results. This way, the chefs get to influence the list more.

The voting takes place via a secure online survey where each member is sent a unique link with a simple voting process. Each person can vote for 10 chefs, choosing from a drop-down list and the point system is 10 – 100. The voting starts at the beginning of May with a one-month window to vote.

Chefs cannot vote for themselves. Once the survey has been completed, the votes have been cast. By then there is no way to change a vote. Not even The Best Chef organization has access to the results until the voting period has ended.

Does a Chef have to fit some certain criteria?

No. Chefs do not have to have been working a certain period of time and they don’t have to have won any culinary accolades. Any Chef in the world can be voted for so long as that chef has been working during the voting period.

What does The Best Chef look for in a chef?

The Best Chef looks for creativity, intelligence, passion, innovation, sustainability. Of course, a Best Chef Award winner must create amazing food, but that is not enough anymore. The Best Chef is looking for a modern chef, a leader, and one that elevates food with technology or science, or one that makes a positive social impact through his kitchen, for example. A role model of hard work that can serve as a guide to new generations of curious new talent.

Now that you know how it all works, here’s a link to the this year’s Top 100 fresh new faces www.thebestchefawards.com/top100-the-best-chef-2022/
You may even spot some of our own South African culinary icons like Chef James Gaag of La Colombe and Chef Peter Tempelhoff of Fyn.

I look forward and am honoured to be attending The Best Chef Awards myself in Madrid this year. Follow along on social media to see how it all unfolds #SeeYouInMadrid

You can find further information here www.thebestchefawards.com