
Why there isn't a best chef in the world
IN VICTORY, top chefs are much like the classiest of professional tennis players: Self-deprecatory, admiring of their rivals, grateful to their teachers. Three weeks ago, just after his restaurant Maido was proclaimed No 1 among the 50 Best Restaurants in the World at a ceremony in Turin, Italy, Mitsuharu Tsumura told me: 'There is competition, but when you finish, you shake hands, you have a beer.'
Unlike tennis and other sports, though, the world of haute cuisine doesn't really have a universally recognised ranking system like the Association of Tennis Professionals and the Women's Tennis Association. For those who point to the Michelin Guide, I will politely say the French tyre company provides ratings not rankings.
The 50 Best franchise certainly provides a glitzy showcase for some of the finest eating establishments in the world, but it's incomplete. The list has lots of Latin American representation, like Maido in Peru, but sparse North American luminaries. (One of my favourites, Atomix in New York City, placed 12th this year, dropping six spots; the next US restaurant isn't even in the top 50: Single Thread in Healdsburg, California, at 80.)
Once upon a time, the best chef in the world was whoever was at the top of the French culinary universe. Paul Bocuse — who died in 2018 and whose name is enshrined in the Bocuse D'Or cooking competition in his native Lyon — was perhaps the most infallible of these culinary arbiters of fine dining. However, for about a three-decade span — from the very end of the 20th century to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic — there was wide consensus that two non-French cooks were the world's most influential chefs.
For the first half of the period, it was Ferran Adria of El Bulli in Spain. For the second half, it was Rene Redzepi of Noma in Copenhagen. Their primacy is reflected in the history of the 50 Best: Adria has won the top spot five times; Redzepi has done it four times. In 2019, the organisation changed its rules, automatically promoting all past and future top-notchers into a 'Best of the Best' hall of fame. It was a way of getting new restaurants into the rankings while assuaging the older guard with apotheosis.
The reform was a polite way to freshen up the list, but it unwittingly reflects a real change in the nature of the culinary world, one effected by the legacies of Adria and Redzepi. Let me summarise it by way of an anecdote.
During a dinner, the Spanish chef, who is a friend, turned to me with one of the terrifying restaurant history questions he likes to hurl at friend and foe alike. Get the answer right and you are golden. Get it wrong and you'll get an hour-long lecture to set you right.
'What is the greatest lesson of El Bulli?' he asked me.
Fortunately, a couple of months before, I had heard the answer — from Rene Redzepi. The Dane, whom I also consider a friend, had worked briefly in Adria's kitchen and has feted the Spaniard on his birthday at Noma. And so, I repeated what I'd learned: 'The most important rule of El Bulli is that there are no rules'. Adria smiled approvingly and I got no lecture.
Adria dethroned the French as world champions with his genre-busting kitchen techniques; and Redzepi pushed the revolution further by turning Nordic notions into haute cuisine, further showing everyone that their local cuisines too could become global standard-bearers. You didn't have to be French — or Spanish or Danish.
Today, I find it quite moving that among the James Beard Awards and nominations for best restaurants in the various US regions were establishments serving Filipino, Tamil, Thai, Korean, Mexican, Vietnamese and a host of other non-European cuisines. It's also inspiring that one of the chefs who got the most attention at the Turin ceremony was Pichaya Soontornyanakij and her restaurant Potong in Bangkok. Ikoyi, the highest-placed London restaurant at 15, has its roots in West African cooking.
A quick round of interviews with top contenders for the 50 Best revealed a consensus for the cuisines with increasing global influence: Mexican, Chinese, Korean and Indian. It's going to be hard to figure on parameters that will allow you judge whether the wok hei technique of a Hong Kong chef is better than the bhuna caramelisation of a top restaurant in Mumbai.
Even as all this decentralisation continues, the world of chefs seems to be settling into two semi-ideological camps. Or perhaps the word is egocentric. The 50 Best appears to be a favourite annual stop of Adria; his disciples have followed.
Meanwhile, a more nebulous but just as influential group gathers around Redzepi, who not only has been taking Noma around the world (Kyoto last year; Los Angeles next) but also this year revived the MAD Symposium, which was legendary in the 2010s for allowing chefs to voice big and deep thoughts. Both men continue to project their authority and personality onto a cooking universe without a centre of gravity.
But chefs still like prizes — especially those with the label 'best'. I started this column with tennis players. If you believe that they are as gracious in private as their victorious personas on the podium, well, you haven't been watching enough matches with the athletes grunting, growling and scowling.
Chefs share the same passions and instincts. This year at the 50 Best, a popular expectation was that the No 1 spot would go to Bittor Arginzoniz's Asador Etxebarri in Spain's Basque country. Maido, with its celebration of Peru's Japanese immigrant Nikkei cuisine, has been working its way up the list for years, but Etxebarri, with its innovative grilling, has been one of the most influential restaurants in the world for a long time. Its chef is also famously fiery and competitive.
So, despite his smiling demeanour in Turin, he was probably unhappy that the restaurant came in at No 2. One foodie friend — who asked not to be named because he knows too many sensitive chefs — quipped that 'Bittor is probably so mad at the snub that he's only going to make Etxebarri better than ever, just to show everyone up. Better book a table now.' — Bloomberg
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
This article first appeared in The Malaysian Reserve weekly print edition
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Star
6 hours ago
- The Star
Aaron-Wooi Yik eye strong run after smashing start at China Open
Soh Wooi Yik and Aaron Chia celebrate after winning their quarter-final match. Credit - Ningbo Olympic Sports Centre PETALING JAYA: Men's doubles world No. 2 Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik could be on track for a fifth podium finish this year at the China Open. The duo bounced back with a solid win in Changzhou after a disappointing first-round exit at the Japan Open last week. Taking on Denmark's Rasmus Kjaer-Frederik Sogaard on Wednesday (July 23), the Asian champions were in control throughout, winning 21-19, 21-15 to move into the second round. Aaron-Wooi Yik will face French brothers Christo and Toma Junior Popov next. Should they clear that hurdle, their path to the final looks promising as they are in the bottom half of the draw, avoiding top contenders such as newly crowned world No. 1 pair Kim Won-ho-Seo Seung-jae of South Korea and home favourites Liang Weikeng-Wang Chang. Adding to their advantage, top seeds Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani have already been knocked out. Aaron-Wooi Yik could face several familiar names in the bottom half of the draw, including compatriots Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun and Thailand's Kittinupong Kedren-Dechapol Puavaranukroh, among others. A strong run this week would be a fitting redemption for Aaron-Wooi Yik, who missed out on last year's edition after Aaron suffered a fractured toe during the semi-finals of the Paris 2024 Olympics. That said, Aaron-Wooi Yik will need to stay focused and not underestimate any opponents if they are to avoid another early setback like the one they endured in Tokyo last week. For the record, Aaron-Wooi Yik made it to the China Open final in 2023 but their title hopes were crushed by Weikeng-Wang Chang. So far this season, Aaron-Wooi Yik have enjoyed a strong run, adding the Thailand Open and Singapore Open titles to their Asian Championships crown, along with a runner-up finish at the Malaysian Masters.


Hype Malaysia
9 hours ago
- Hype Malaysia
Movie Tea: 'Evil Dead Burn' Enters Production; 'Barbarian' Director To Lead New 'Resident Evil' Movie
Zombies are once again coming back from the dead to take over movie theatres starting next year! From 'Resident Evil' receiving its redemption arc, to 'Evil Dead' receiving a new director – here's the latest and juiciest news on upcoming movies that you can sink your teeth into! Sébastien Vaniček Carries On The Torch For New 'Evil Dead' Movie It's common sense at this point that when you see a cursed book — you don't open it. Unfortunately, some people just can't help but let their curiosity get the better of them. Luckily for us, that means we get to enjoy a new movie, courtesy of Sam Raimi and his upcoming 'Evil Dead' entry. That's right, the 'Evil Dead' franchise is once again rising from the grave to wreak havoc on the living, this time with an entry titled 'Evil Dead Burn'. The news originated from a simple Instagram post – but not from Raimi. Rather, this post came from the French filmmaker Sébastien Vaniček. Known for his work in 'Infested' (2023) and 'Crocs' (2018), the relatively green filmmaker is appointed as this film's director in what appears to be a Herculean task. Despite this, you can still feel the energy from this director courtesy of his post, where he shares a photo of a movie clapper with the movie's title and his name as its director, as well as a sneak peek of who the cameraman is. In the post above, we can see one Philip Lozano, a veteran cinematographer known for his work on 'District B13' (2004) and 'Now You See Me' (2013), as the camera operator for the upcoming movie. Outside of the official announcement that shooting is now underway, we don't know anything about 'Evil Dead Burn,' not even if this entry will continue the story of 'Evil Dead Rise' (2023) or any of the previous entries, for that matter. It is being produced by Raimi, Bruce Campbell, and Lee Cronin, which might hint that it might be a separate entry, especially with Cronin staying in the producer's chair. However, we aren't completely in the dark about 'Evil Dead Burn.' We know Vaniček wrote the screenplay for the movie, alongside Florent Bernard. Furthermore, it will also include recognisable actors such as Hunter Doohan, Souheila Yacoub, Luciane Buchanan, and Tandi Wright. We can expect 'Evil Dead Burn' to hit cinemas on 24th July, 2026. Zach Cregger To Make 'Resident Evil' Movie More Like The Games Yes, we've all heard it before: some video games were never meant to be turned into movies. You can try, but you can only blame yourself when you set the expectations so high and the movie fails to meet them. No franchise was more of a victim of this than the hit zombie game 'Resident Evil.' However, much like 'The Super Mario Bros. Movie' or 'Sonic the Hedgehog', all it needed was a fresh new visionary who's willing to give the IP a try. And who is more worthy of this challenge than horror genre innovator and 'Barbarian' director Zach Cregger? Speaking with Cregger discussed his history with the franchise and how it affected his upcoming take. The director himself is a notable fan of the franchise, boasting that he has 'played all of the games', specifically the most popular one, 'Resident Evil 4'. He is a dedicated enjoyer of Capcom's zombie shooter and would like to take a crack at hopefully succeeding where others have failed. In the interview, he notably stated that 'I just want to tell a story that feels like it's honouring the experience you get when you play the games.' Though Cregger has never seen a single adaptation of his beloved franchise, he seems to be extremely confident in the project, saying that 'I think the movie is going to rip.' Then again, knowing how the movies went, he probably decided to save himself and the adapted franchise altogether by making a newer entry. Naturally, as it is still in its early stages, we don't know what game entry the movie will adapt or if it will be an entirely new and original story made for the big screen. Furthermore, Cregger has stressed that he will be loose when it comes to the Resident Evil lore, but will still do his best to create an authentic experience. has gone on to add that the film might focus more on the 'outskirts of Racoon City,' suggesting that the movie will be either focusing on 'Resident Evil 2' or 'Resident Evil 3.' What we know for sure is that the adaptation is slated for an 18th September, 2026, release window. Sources: Empire,


The Star
13 hours ago
- The Star
Aaron-Wooi Yik advance, Soon Huat-Shevon out of China Open
National men's doubles shuttlers Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik in action against Taiwan's Liu Kuang-heng-Yang Po-han in the second round match of Malaysian Masters at Axiata Arena, Bukit Jalil on Thursday. — IZZRAFIQ ALIAS/The Star PETALING JAYA: Men's doubles pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik redeemed themselves from last week's early exit in Tokyo by clearing the first round of the China Open in Changzhou on Wednesday (July 23). Aaron-Wooi Yik, who crashed out early at the Japan Open, made no such mistake this time as they ousted Denmark's Rasmus Kjaer-Frederik Sogaard 21-19, 21-15 in just 41 minutes at the Changzhou Olympic Sports Centre. The world No. 2 pair will now wait for the outcome of the match between French brothers Christo and Toma Junior Popov and Canada's Kevin Lee-Ty Alexander Lindeman to find out their second-round opponents on Thursday (July 24). Meanwhile, mixed doubles pair Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie were shown the exit after falling to Indonesia's Jafar Hidayatullah-Felisha Pasaribu. Despite coming in as last year's runners-up, Soon Huat-Shevon were unable to repeat their strong showing and went down 21-18, 22-24, 15-21.