Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2015 : Chef Gaggan Anand takes the cake!
Held yesterday night at Capella Singapore in Sentosa, the awards ceremony ranked restaurants across Asia for their culinary prowess.
From Japan to India, this one-of-a-kind event brought together the who’s who of Asian chefs, restaurateurs and personalities from the F&B industry. Essentially, it was quite the unique and exciting place to be in for any food enthusiast!
As for the awards itself, scoring third place last year, chef Gaggan Anand from Bangkok won the highest accolade coming in first this time with his innovative Indian cuisine. Clearly moved, he took to the stage with his team to receive the award and seemed to be the most surprised as he paid a huge tribute to his mother. We know he has definitely moved us with his humble nature.
Moving on, another round of applause also went up for the new entries on the list, among which include, Cuisine Wat Damnak in Cambodia, Antonio’s in Philippines and Ministry of Crab in Sri Lanka. On the other hand though, we were rather disappointed to hear that Nham, last year’s winner, dropped to the 7th position.
While China led the poll, with 16 restaurants winning awards, Singapore confirmed its status of being the top culinary destination with 10 restaurants landing on the list. Burnt Ends made a grand entrance at the 30th place, JAAN rose 6 places to land at number 11 and Restaurant André, ranked number 5 on the grand roundup, was also named The S.Pellegrino Best Restaurant in Singapore.
Seizing Asia’s Best Pastry Chef with chef Hidemi Sugino and taking the Highest Climber Award with Hajime restaurant, Japan was no doubt well represented either.
Japan’s neighbour, South Korea similarly gained a spot on our radar for the next edition as La Yeon – new to the list – secured the One To Watch award, and Jungsik rose up to place at number 10.
This year, the voting process was based on the expertise of 300 leaders in the restaurant industry, and was divided into six regions in order to fairly represent Asia’s food scene.
Overall, we believe that the 2015 award ceremony was much more interesting in that it acknowledged more diverse restaurants throughout the region, showing their receptivity to all kinds of cuisines.
The Asia classification is one part of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list, for which the results will only be announced on June 1st in London. So hold on to your plates, there’s more to come !
Céline Manoukian
Photo credit: Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants
