The Best Chef Awards 2024
Another list, another awards, what does it mean and do we care?
Earlier this week The Best Chef Awards unfurled its pageantry. A few of us were invited to attend, celebrate the individuals, the industry and suck down Moët like it was life support.
You may have questions, so do we.
What is The Best Chef Awards?
Best Chef Awards started in 2017 putting a spotlight on the talent, creativity and influence of chefs (not their restaurants) where *squints over press release* this year’s awards honoured 550 chefs from 61 countries, making it the largest to date. These eighth awards were hosted by Atlantis the Palm, Dubai and, naturally, it was sponsored by Dubai Tourism. A point to which we will return.
The Best Chef Awards is a three-day event culminating with the actual awards where—in the run up to the awards—chefs make speeches and presentations, but we are not going to talk about those because, well, we did not go and not all of us are convinced people care.
How does The Best Chef Awards work?
Well, about 570 ‘culinary professionals’ voted this year (more vs last year). Chefs make up the majority of voters, and writers, hospitality owners etc make up the rest. Each person votes anonymously (but we can assume some voters were in the room, and they all know that), the scores are tallied and the final list is published highlighting the top three best chefs in the world. Also, there are special categories like Best Pastry. We will come back to the categories.
This year, The Best Chef Awards launched a Knives rating system (sounds familiar) that goes like this:
Three Knives (The Best): Celebrating the highest tier of culinary mastery, awarded to 97 chefs who achieved 80% or more of the maximum points.
Two Knives (World-Class): Acknowledging 177 chefs who reached 40% or more, representing world-class expertise.
One Knife (Excellent): Recognising 276 chefs who attained 20% or more, underscoring their notable contributions to the field.
The Big Winners
The Best Chef Awards 2024 big winners were…
1ST PLACE: Rasmus Munk – Alchemist, Denmark
2ND PLACE: Albert Adrià – Enigma, Spain
3RD PLACE: Eric Vildgaard – Jordnær, Denmark
SPECIAL AWARD WINNERS
These awards celebrate chefs with extraordinary contributions in specific areas:
The Best (R)Evolution: Albert Adrià, Enigma (Spain)
The Best Chef Pastry Award: René Frank, Coda (Germany)
The Best New Entry Award: Mei Kogo, Sushi Meino (Japan)
The Best Terroir Award: Jaime Rodríguez, Celele (Colombia)
The Best Science Award: Ángel León, Aponiente (Spain)
The Best Food Art Award: Julien Royer, Odette (Singapore)
The Best NextGen Award: Michele Lazzarini, Contrada Bricconi (Italy)
The Best Dining Experience Award: Vaughan Mabee, Amisfield (New Zealand)
The Best Creativity Award: Paco Méndez, COME (Spain)
The Best Dubai Award: Himanshu Saini, Trèsind Studio (UAE)
The Best Voted by Professionals Award: Ana Roš, Hiša Franko (Slovenia)
The Best Origins & Future Award: curiously this was a tie… (1) Eva, Lilian, Emilie Rihani, Three by Eva (UAE) (2) Mohamad, Wassim, Omar Orfali, Orfali Bros (UAE)
The Middle East represents!
Fully deserved? Home court advantage? Whiffs of sponsor appeasement? You decide.
Three Knives: Tala Bashmi (Fusions by Tala in Bahrain), Grégoire Berger (Ossiano) and Himanshu Saini (Trèsind Studio), both Dubai
Two Knives: The Orfali Trio (Orfali Bros) and Daniel Birk (Row on 45)
One Knife: Sara Aqel (Dara Dining), Rahul Rana (Avatara), Solemann Haddad (Moonrise) and Tom Allen (Dinner by Heston Blumenthal)
Most of the Middle East representatives are deserving of the accolades they received as there’s some great talent here and it’s good to see it being recognized,
Most of these winners did not surprise. Some names appear in other guides, lists and they are broadly recognized as being the Best of the Best both in the Middle East and worldwide. We do have some questions about some and the Special Awards. Let us know what you think in the comments.
Do these Awards matter?
We walked away thinking ‘well, that was nice’, but really, do we need another culinary award in the world? Does this matter to you and me, the people who go to restaurants? Does it bring actual footfall to restaurants? Is this just self-congratulatory industry back patting writ large? Are the sponsor’s fingerprints plain to see?
Like any Awards, there are pros and there are cons.
Let’s start with the positives.
It puts daylight on chefs who may not get it otherwise. Bahrain, Venezuela, Guatemala, Ecuador, South Africa, Dominican Republic, Philippines, Poland, Faroe Islands, Indonesia, Malta, Panama, Estonia and Jordan are seldom to never in the discussion as bastions of cuisine on the international stage. Each country now has at least one chef on the Best Chefs Awards. Many of these markets do not purchase the Michelin or Gault & Millau rights. Many are not featured on any World 50 Best Restaurants Global or Regional list. These chefs now sit alongside Ángel León, Rene Redzepi and others. This may be their only international acknowledgement, and, in that sense, by aiming a spotlight at individual talent, The Best Chef Awards may be the most democratic awards freed from the constraints of those other publications. That is rare.
Chef-driven. There is something to be said about this being more profession-driven. Chefs look for different things compared to the public or critics. It also hits different when your award comes from your peers.
Rasmus Munk deserves all the awards he gets. Alchemist is audacious, breathtaking, and done with purpose and aplomb. Rasmus is a well-deserved winner.
Greg Malouf’s memorium was touching and tasteful. You could see the impact on people in the room.
Everyone deserves a good night out. We love a night out, especially in some exotic city like Dubai. What a time to be alive. It is edifying to have the recognition of your peers. Cheffing is HARD. Often lonely, riddled with sacrifices and there are few professions where everyone not only has an opinion but will lob it at you apropos of nothing. So go have fun, get some selfies and grab a drink—even if it is Moët.
Pallavi and Liam with the The Best chef Awards number one chef, Rasmus Munk, in 2023 at Alchemist.
On the other hand…
The incongruence vs other Guides and lists. Each Guide and list has its own pros/cons where their system has gaps. The Best Chef Awards is another popularity contest of sorts. It's unclear how a one knife chef can lead a three Michelin star restaurant. It sends mixed messages.
The top three chefs are all European men. This could be due to the weighting of the voting body, but we could not help but notice.
Does this drive traffic to restaurants? How many people look up the Best Chef Awards then book a restaurant? Are you going book a lunch or night out based on this list? We do not know a single person who does. It is often the third or fourth award a chef will mention when they talk about their accolades. We suspect this sits below both word of mouth and World of Mouth.
Some of these special categories seem made up. Liam started looking around at one point where the strained seams of giving *something* to as many people as possible started to show. Terroir? Science? Origins and Future? I could almost hear Oprah saying ‘you get an award, you get an award’.
Liam wonders, are there too many winners?
Nearly 600 winners out of a global population of chefs is indeed drops and buckets, but it also starts to sound like a lot. The Awards decided to expand the pool. Michelin in theory doesn’t maximise its constituents. 50 Best only has 50 spots (yes, yes, there’s 51-100 too, but it’s still SIX TIMES less than Best Chef Awards). The point is that the prestige comes from being one of the few. 600 stops sounding like few.
Solemann was a winner taking home One Knife at The Best Chef Awards.
The 3 Knives section looks a little tired. It is a Mount Rushmore of G.O.A.T.s. Maybe retire a few, create some room for new blood and therefore cull the 600. 50 Best has the Best of the Best. Do that. A Golden Knife.
Chefs still prefer Michelin? This is minor, but we couldn’t help but notice that the Michelin Guide Italy was announced the night before where the Italy’s best and brightest attended. Shout out to Norbert, Riccardo, Massimo and others. Almost none of the Italian chefs came to The Best Chef Awards. “But guys, it was the night before….”—hush, there are daily flights from Milan, Venice, Rome, Naples and more within 6-7 hours. If you have to choose between Michelin and The Best Chefs, it seems you choose Michelin.
If you enjoyed reading this, you can find Pallavi Sangtani here on Substack or on Instagram.
Liam Collens is also here on Substack where he publishes restaurant and travel reviews, runs EatGoSee and he can be found via itsliamcollens on Instagram and Threads.
publishes the Weekly A to Z on Substack with restaurant reviews for paid subscribers or find Courtney on Instagram.Related reads
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It sounds like a fun event. On the space for another award, I do see a justification only because the Michelin/ Gault&Millau accreditation is clearly bestowed on the restaurants and not the chef. In football we have the titles and individual awards. In movies we have awards for movies and talent. Here, with the clear exclusion, I kind of believe the big boys have left the door open for an award event that is for talent. I think. How relevant, objective and honest it can be - how relevant, objective and honest are any awards in this space? What’s another? If there’s free champagne to flow, let the good times roll I’d reckon.
Wow, it’s a great summery, I do 95% with your conclusions!