World Restaurant Awards: Who will win ‘tattoo-free chef of the year’?

A new global restaurant award hoping to challenge the status of Michelin stars, Europe’s Gault Millau points and Australia’s Chef Hats, has its inaugural awards ceremony in Paris tonight.  

The World Restaurant Awards have been set up to celebrate excellence in cooking, but also integrity and diversity in the food world.

How chef Clare Smyth’s new London restaurant scored a perfect 10

The judging panel of 50 men and 50 women includes journalists, influencers and culinary professionals from 36 countries.

Among the big names are chefs such as Elena Arzak, Alex Atala, Massimo Bottura, David Chang, Hélène Darroze, René Redzepi, Yotam Ottolenghi – and Clare Smyth, whose restaurant, Core by Clare Smyth, which opened in London last August, was the first new eatery to score a perfect 10 in the British The Good Food Guide since marks were given in 2008.

There are 18 award categories, including awards for the year’s most impressive newcomer, best ethical restaurant, a kitchen with the most original thinking and the restaurant with the most appealing atmosphere.

There are also more fun awards for the “tattoo-free chef of the year” (candidates include Clare Smyth, Alain Ducasse and David Thompson), “best tweezer-free kitchen”, and “most impressive red-wine-serving restaurant”.

The categories for most captivating Instagram account and most talented long-form journalist expand the awards beyond the kitchen.

Two Hong Kong restaurants are up for other awards – Godenya, in Central, in the “forward drinking” category, recognising excellence in cutting-edge drinks creation, and Yat Lok, also in Central, in the “house special” category, which celebrates restaurants specialising in a particular dish.

The Michelin-starred Yat Lok – best known for its signature roast goose dish – is competing against a hot dog from Portugal’s Cervejaria Gazela, soft shell crab from Trishna in India, and grilled unagi at Tokyo’s Obana.

Appealing to today’s diners looking for excellent food and service, but without a formal atmosphere, the “no reservations required” shortlist includes relaxed and affordable establishments such as Clamato in Paris, where the menu changes according to the day’s catch, Tokyo fish burger bar Deli Fu Cious, and London’s northern Thai barbecue restaurant, Kiln.

The “ethical thinking” category takes into consideration how restaurants care for their employees, customers and the wider community. The shortlist includes Silo in Brighton, England, a pioneering zero-waste restaurant which mills its own flour, churns butter, makes its own almond milk and recycles glass bottles into serving dishes.

Saint Peter in Sydney, which champions sustainable seafood in its fish butchery, and Massimo Bottura’s Refettorio (Milan, London, Paris and Rio de Janeiro), which feeds the vulnerable and hungry while educating about reducing food waste, are also on the shortlist.

In the “off-map destination” award, remote locations become central stars. The shortlist includes Mil Centro in Peru, which sits more than 3,000 metres (9,850 feet) above sea level in the Andes.

Here, chef Virgilio Martinez and his sister, Malena Martinez, chronicle and revive ancient ingredients and food practices.

Wolfgat, a 20-seat dining room in a South African beach cottage which serves dishes made almost entirely from ingredients sourced within 10km (six miles) of the restaurant, is another contender.

For this year’s awards, Singapore has been selected as the Official Culinary Destination Partner, with a dinner showcasing Singaporean cooking and bartending skills.

The awards will also be launching a culinary exchange programme in which emerging chefs from Singapore will be placed with award-winning or nominated establishments, and vice versa.

Singapore will also be the first in a series of international destinations to play host to “The World Restaurant Awards Dining Series” later this year, in which cross-country collaborations between Singapore and international chefs will culminate in a multi-course dinner.

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