Following the successful move to Macao in 2018, the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants awards ceremony and associated event program will return to the city-state in 2019. On the evening of Tuesday 26th March, Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants will gather the region’s most celebrated chefs, renowned restaurateurs, industry VIPs and international media at Wynn Palace Cotai to reveal the 2019 list and special award winners. The prestigious awards ceremony, sponsored by S.Pellegrino and Acqua Panna, is hosted with the support of Macao Government Tourism Office.
The gala awards evening is the highlight of a series of events over the week in Macao which will see the greatest culinary talent from across Asia gather for collaborative dinners, interactive talks and the annual Chefs’ Feast celebration. In 2018, chefs and restaurateurs from over 90% of the restaurants on the list attended to witness Bangkok destination Gaggan being named as The Best Restaurant in Asia, sponsored by S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna, for a record fourth time.
The 2019 program will include the popular #50BestTalks event at Wynn Macau, presented by Miele, on Monday 25th March. The one-day curated forum will bring together world-leading chefs and culinary leaders to discuss big ideas around sustainability, sourcing, over-consumption and other current issues facing chefs, restaurateurs and diners under the heading ‘Vital Ingredients’.
The theme of #50BestTalks reflects the organisation’s recent focus on key issues of sustainability, inclusivity, opportunity and diversity in global gastronomy. In 2018, the Sustainable Restaurant Award was introduced as part of the wider Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants awards program for the first time with the new winner to be announced in Macao next year.
William Drew, Group Editor of Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants, says: “After the great success of the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2018 ceremony in Macao, we’re very much looking forward to returning to this exciting and fast evolving destination. Last year’s program and awards attracted the highest number of attendees in the event’s history and we anticipate 2019 will be even bigger and, of course, even better.”
Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, Director of Macao Government Tourism Office, says: “It will be our pleasure to showcase the east-meets-west cultural heritage of Macao, the brand-new integrated resorts, the diverse calendar of events and, of course, our vibrant dining scene, as we pave the way to transform the city into a world centre of tourism and leisure. The innovative and creative spirit of Asia’s top chefs gathered in Macao in March this year left a strong impression in our city. As a newly designated UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy, we are looking forward to interacting once again with the best of the best in the Asian culinary world and being inspired in our efforts to take our destination to its next level of development, in terms of quality, diversity and sustainability.”
Wynn Resorts, the owner of two luxury integrated resorts in Macao (Wynn Palace Cotai and Wynn Macau), is once again the Official Venue Partner. Since the 2018 ceremony, Wynn Palace Cotai and Wynn Macau have hosted a series of world-class gourmet events and welcomed revered chefs to their premises. In July, Macao’s most celebrated Cantonese chef, Tam Kwok Fung, has taken the helm of Wing Lei Palace at Wynn Palace.
Since its 2013 launch, Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants has celebrated local culinary traditions, rewarded innovation and identified new talent in the region. Now in its seventh year, the list has become a trusted guide for lovers of gastronomy. The awards have been hosted in Singapore (2013-2015) and Bangkok, Thailand (2016-2017) before moving to Macao for the first time in 2018.
The 2018 list of Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants, sponsored by S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna, featured eight new entries and included special awards such as the Miele One To Watch Award, Asia’s Best Pastry Chef, sponsored by Valrhona, the Sustainable Restaurant Award and the elit® Vodka Asia’s Best Female Chef.
How the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list is compiled
The list is created from the votes of the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants Academy, an influential group of over 300 leaders in the restaurant industry across Asia, each selected for their expert opinion of Asia’s restaurant scene. The panel in each region is made up of food writers and critics, chefs, restaurateurs and highly regarded ‘gastronomes’. Members list their choices in order of preference, based on their best restaurant experiences of the previous 18 months. There is no pre-determined checklist of criteria, but there are strict voting rules.
For the 2019 edition, Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants is once again working with professional services consultancy Deloitte as its official independent adjudication partner. The adjudication by Deloitte ensures that the integrity and authenticity of the voting process and the resulting list of Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants are protected. To see more details on Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants voting process, visit http://www.theworlds50best.com/asia/en/our-manifesto.html
