The sixth edition of The Best Chef Awards powered by Perlage, held in Madrid from September 18 to 20, announced Dabiz Muñoz as The Best Chef 2022. With the support of the Madrid City Council and the Community of Madrid, the event brought together crème de la crème of the gastronomic world.
It’s a second year in a row when Dabiz Muñoz, an author and a head chef of a world famous creative project DiverXO, was acclaimed The Best Chef.
This year The Best Chef gave out 13 special awards on top of the famous top100 list. It’s a way to offer special recognition to chefs that stand out in specific areas or subjects. The awards included, amongst others, Best Chef Pastry, Best Chef Rising Star, Best Chef Science and Best Chef New Entry.
On this edition three new awards were presented: The Best Chef Pristine Award powered by Gin Raw, given to Ana Roš, Slovenia, for her utmost respect for and use of the highest quality of local produce at a terroir-based restaurant. The Best Chef Innovation Award, powered by Custom Culinary®, is dedicated to Josh Niland, Australia, showcasing new ideas, methods, trends and leads the way for others within the global culinary world. And last but not least The Best Chef Dining Experience Award, powered by Ron Matusalem — given to Anne-Sophie Pic, France, as a chef who provides the perfect service in the dining room, creating an outstanding and exquisite experience.
The Awards Gala took place in the walls of beautiful Palacio de Cibeles on 20th of September. Full list of the winners 2022 is available here.
Feeling Pulse of Madrid
Besides Palacio de Cibeles, Casino de Madrid, Teatro Goya and Headquarter of the Community of Madrid turned into venues for the main acts of the event, consolidating Madrid as one of the main centers of gastronomic attraction on the planet.
Madrid, in a full culinary ascension set by the kitchens of its most outstanding restaurants and chefs, who accumulate leading rows in the most prestigious international guides and lists, brought together chefs, journalists and gastronomes of more than 30 nationalities.
A full program designed to exchange knowledge and experiences and to uncover talents started on Sunday, September 18 at the Casino de Madrid with two heated discussion panels framed in the Area Talks section. Diego Guerrero, Fatmata Binta, Alena Solodovichenko, Rafael Tonon and Geeta Bansal incorporated the variables of food and peace into the equation to be solved during the talk. Followed by Alex Atala, Eric Vildgaard, Leonor Espinosa, Alexandra Forbes and Dabiz Muñoz, raising questions of political correctness during their conversation.
Food Meets Science
Second day, Food Meets Science — another educational section of The Best Chef — combined the talks and show cookings at the Goya Theater. Starting point became the performance of Eduard Xatruch, who presented the avant-garde techniques of Disfrutar. Next up on the stage, Shai Hayman (Redefine Meat), unveiled the story of NEW-MEATTM.
The opportunity to discover the balance between innovation and tradition in pizza came with Franco Pepe (Pepe in Grani) — winner of The Best Chef Pizza Award 2021 and 2022, powered by Molini Pizzuti.
John Feeney and Joke Putsey (Custom Culinary®) shared the ideas to advance in the field of sustainability by rethinking the concept of food waste.
Darrin Daniel, executive director of Cup of Excellence, continued the program talking about Impact and Innovation in Coffee.
Followed by Andoni Luis Aduriz (Mugaritz), who challenged the audience to consider how and what people would eat in the future.
The Japanese Chef Natsuko Shoji (Été) during her showcooking opened secrets of her signature mango tarte and caviar millefeuille.
Next, Hektor Monroy (Ron Matusalem) together with Foodpairing® showed how to scientifically discover the most surprising food paring combinations.
Massimo Bottura (Osteria Francescana) and Jessica Rosval (Casa Maria Luigia) presented the real “The Power of Food”, followed by Valentin Platter, Jürgen Graf and Martin Buchholtz who will discover for us the evolution of wine for a better and tasteful future.
Finally, Antonio Bachour (Bachour Coral Gables), winner of The Best Chef Pastry Awards 2018 and 2022 powered by Valrhona, put the icing on the cake at Food Meets Science with a showcase of the pastry scene in next years.
In line with potential and particular revolution, Madrid was chosen to host this sixth edition of The Best Chef Awards powered by Perlage as a consequence of the desire to point out, elevate and consolidate the city as one of the main poles of gastronomic attraction in the world.
Throughout 3 days guests had an opportunity to try exclusive production of The Best Chef partners, Jamón by Arturo Sánchez, Coffee by Difference Coffee, Caviar by Antonius Caviar, Campagne by Champagne Perrier-Jouët, Chocolate by Valrhona, Rom by Matusalem, Gin by GINRAW Barcelona and more.
Joan Roca (El Celler de Can Roca, Girona) was in 2017 the first professional named by The Best Chef Awards as the best chef in the world. A year later he renewed the title, and then such a distinction went to his colleagues Björn Frantzén (Frantzén, Stockholm), next Rene Redzepi (Noma, Copenhagen) and Dabiz Muñoz (DiverXO, Madrid) — 2021 and 2022.
More information about The Best Chef Awards as well as the full list of winners 2022 could be found by the link.
The Best Chef Awards
Instagram: @thebestchefawards
Photo courtesy: EATWEEKGUIDE
