Tag Archives: World’s 50 Best Restaurants

World’s 50 Best Restaurants are revealed tonight but should you care?

by Qin Xie | Leave a comment

Published on Yahoo Lifestyle UK & Ireland on 28th April 2014:

Best restaurant in the world

Each and every year since the inaugural list was published in Restaurant Magazine in 2002, chefs, journalists and gourmands wait in hot anticipation for the announcement of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants. From a lonely feature in a, perhaps, little known trade magazine in the hospitality industry, the awards have grown to be something well regarded and highly commercialised across the world.

Last year saw the launch of Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants and the year before that was the first Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants. It’s a beast of a list that has grown and grown and with it drew criticisms.

The first is of course, does anyone outside of the restaurant industry care?

Read more at Yahoo!

Want to be first with the World’s 50 Best Restaurants? Forget the ceremony: check Twitter

by Qin Xie | 1 Comment

Published on Spear’s WMS on 3rd May 2013:

As the chatter quietens down and lights dim inside the Guildhall ready for the countdown of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants, a flurry of activity restarts.

The results had been leaked. ‘It’s all over the internet,’ screams Twitter.

How silly are we to be sitting down, waiting eagerly to see if Noma had been toppled?

‘Can everyone switch off their phone please?’ came the announcement. I guess the organisers knew too.

Awkward.

But still, there’s a slim chance that the results were fake. As the countdown begins, it was obvious — we’re all trapped here for the next hour listening to what we already knew. The Spanish have taken the crown: El Celler de Can Roca is number one.

Christ, this is tedious. Especially as the champagne had been ditched at the reception; the thirst is coming on strong.

Even more annoying, perhaps, was the prospect of having to file a story overnight because, apparently, only three media outlets in the world have been given access to the results before the event. So much for embargoes, eh?

But then it struck me. Something that was even more annoying than losing sleep. Knowing the results doesn’t mean that the event was any less of a celebration — of achievements, creativity, hospitality, innovation, etc. The list goes on.

Because if you, like me and like them, have worked inside a kitchen, you know hard work doesn’t even begin to describe it. Sure, if the results were just posted on Twitter each year, we probably wouldn’t have to needlessly sit there while Mark Durden-Smith whittled down the numbers until we get to number one but actually, for everyone on the list, this was their 15 minutes.

So shush, Twitter, let them have their moment of glory and savour their spot in restaurant history.

Celebrity chef pop ups? No thanks, I’d rather spend my money on the real thing

by Qin Xie | Leave a comment

Published on Yahoo Lifestyle UK & Ireland on 1st May 2013:

Best restaurant in the world

Have you noticed a sudden influx of international chefs to London recently? And that visiting chef pop-ups of the Michelin-starred variety are popping up everywhere?

Well, as you’ll have probably gathered, they are in town for the World’s 50 Best Restaurants Awards. The highly regarded award, now in its 11th year, draws some of the world’s best chefs to the city. With their arrival however, came the slew of pop-ups.

Why not showcase their skills? After all, they are already in town.

Indeed many of these chefs are worth seeing in action, not only for their food, the demonstration of skills but also for the local knowledge that they can share. For the average person, it’s a great insight into some of the world’s best chefs, their food and their restaurants.

Read more at Yahoo!

Spanish dominate world’s best restaurants list

by Qin Xie | Leave a comment

Published on CNN on 30th April 2013:

The results were leaked, Noma was no longer at the top. But no one was unduly concerned.

These things are bound to happen — the 11th World’s 50 Best Restaurant Awards show went on.

What started out as a feature in the UK-based Restaurant magazine is now the most revered and sought after accolade in the business. As Richard Vines, UK and Ireland chair of the awards and chief food critic at Bloomberg, says, “It’s the restaurant industry’s equivalent of the Oscars.”

Read more at CNN

Cooking Dinner

by Qin Xie | Leave a comment

Published on the Taste of London blog on 8th June 2012:

There’s little to say about Dinner that hasn’t already been said. Anything remaining from its launch last year has been well and truly covered in the stories surrounding its placing at number 9 in the recent World’s 50 Best Awards – making it the UK’s top restaurants by this measure.

We spoke to journalist, blogger and trainee chef Qin Xie, who has something new to add. She hasn’t just eaten at Dinner, but actually worked in the kitchen for a week. In her words…

After working 9am to 11pm for seven consecutive days, you get a pretty good idea of the whole operation as a stagiaire. Certainly by the end of the week, I was more than impressed.

It wasn’t everything that I expected. Like the kitchen; you’d expect it to be noisy but one comment from Head Chef Ashley Palmer-Watts and the noise is reduced to a bare minimum. The entire operation runs so smoothly that it’s not just the show kitchen that makes an entertaining viewing, rather, the whole thing is theatre. And everything from start to finish is done with finesse.

Behind the scenes, too, is deserving of praise. Fantastic team work aside, there’s support and nurture found everywhere. More senior chefs take the time to show and teach junior chefs. Enthusiastic and talented chefs are always given the opportunity to progress, whether internally or externally – even I was allowed to plate up and send out starters. And they really take the time to care too; every ailment is taken seriously be it a cut, a burn or simply slight dehydration.

But most of all I am impressed by the chefs. How they have so much passion for what they do. How they are so aware of what other chefs are doing and what the press is saying. How they have travelled the world to work in the kitchens of the best restaurants in the world before working at Dinner.

When the time came for me to leave, I was pretty sorry to go. I really felt like I was part of the team. And what a team to be part of. So it really is with my warmest congratulations to Ashley Palmer-Watts and his exemplary team of chefs for winning this year’s highest new entry at number 9. What is there left to do now but wait in eager anticipation for next year’s awards and see what else they can achieve?