Gastronomy: the List distinguishes chefs who adapt and innovate in the face of the pandemic - France 24

Paris (AFP)

The gastronomic classification La List, which tracks 25,000 restaurants in 200 countries, distinguished on Thursday the chefs who have best adapted to the pandemic with ten "special prizes", without revealing, as it usually does, its 1,000 best restaurants in the world .

"It was a year when we could not do as usual, it would be unwelcome (...) It is difficult to classify the restaurants which have been closed in certain countries for three quarters of the year", Helene Pietrini, the new director of the French aggregator, told AFP, from 50 Best, her main British opponent.

Ten special prizes were created in the context of the health crisis that has hit the catering industry hard.

"There are prizes carrying values ​​which will be structural in the future: innovation, solidarity, ethics, sustainable development", underlines Ms. Pietrini.

The chefs who have succeeded in reinventing themselves during confinement with new offers and economic models are also highlighted.

Ghanaian chef Selassie Atadika (Midunu) and Frenchman Florent Ladeyn (Auberge du Vert-Mont) in Flanders have been selected for the "new gastronomic destination" award.

Spaniard Dabiz Muñoz (GoXo in Madrid) and Olivier Nasti, Le Chambard & La Table d'Olivier Nasti in Kayserberg, in the East, were chosen respectively for the international and French selections for the Innovation Prize.

Italian Simone Zanoni is awarded for "digital innovation" for his daily cooking lessons from home, in order to stay connected with the confined customers of his restaurant Le George at the Four Seasons George V palace, in Paris.

The List welcomed a few successful openings despite the pandemic, such as CococoCouture in Saint Petersburg, Russia, Euphoria by Jason Tan in Singapore, Ever in Chicago or Kol in London.

The Peruvian Francesca Ferreyros, and her Thai and Peruvian fusion restaurant Baan in San Isidro in Peru, and Mory Sacko who combines African, Japanese and French flavors in her restaurant Mosuké in Paris, launched in 2020, are among the "new talents" of the year.

© 2021 AFP