World's 50 Best Restaurant Awards come Melbourne
The world’s best chefs and somelliers, some 100 of them, will join media, restaurateurs and industry influencers at the World's 50 Best Restaurant Awards in Melbourne next month.
The event will be a first for Australia. It’s only the second time that the annual gala for the awards will be staged outside London.
The first time that happened was last year when New York took the honours.
The award ceremony will be held on April 5 at the Royal Exhibition Building.
Kitchen luminaries attending the event include Italian Massimo Bottura of Osteria Francescana (which took top honours in 2016), Spaniard Joan Roca of El Celler de Can Roca (No. 1 in 2013 and 2015); Brit Heston Blumenthal of The Fat Duck (No. 1 in 2005); and Peruvian Virgilio Martinez of Central (No. 4 last year).
The World's 50 Best is a closed industry event.
But the public will not completely excluded. For a start, there will also be a live broadcast of the awards ceremony at Melbourne's Federation Square. It will be a big carnival style event with comedians, live music and, of course and food trucks.
And in the lead up to the awards, chefs will be sharing "edible ideas" with the public at #50BestTalks at the MCA in Melbourne and the Sydney Opera House.
And Melbourne Food and Wine will also be holding collaborative dinners to celebrate the event. So the public will not be excluded.
Apart from the 50 Best, the awards will single out a number of other categories. It’s all done Oscars style.
Some have been progressively announced in the lead-up. These include the 2017 best female chef (Slovenian Ana Ros of Hisa Franko) and the lifetime achievement award (Heston Blumenthal).
There will also be a 51-100 list (to be revealed on March 28). Other awards announced on the night will include best pastry chef and chefs' choice. And there will be six continental awards.
by Leon Gettler, March 10th 2017
