For one year only, Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants will replace its annual ranking with a retrospective ‘greatest hits’ list of the 100 best places to eat, which will be unveiled on Monday, 22nd November to support the recovery of the region’s diverse gastronomic scene.
Tune in to watch the awards ceremony for Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants 2021: Pasado y Futuro on 22nd November from 23:00 UK time on Facebook and YouTube
Since 2013, Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants has celebrated local gastronomy and provided diners with culinary recommendations through its annual ranking of the 50 best places to eat in the region, from Baja California in northern Mexico to Patagonia in the southernmost parts of Argentina and Chile. From its inception, the list has been created from the votes of its dedicated Academy, an ever-evolving body formed of more than 250 restaurant industry experts based in Latin America, which votes each year on the best dining experiences of the previous year and a half.
However, these last 18 months have been markedly different than usual. With many restaurants across Latin America closed for long periods, and with the curtailment of travel for diners and voters, the 50 Best organisation is pivoting away from its annual voting process in order to celebrate Latin America’s outstanding culinary talent in a new way in 2021: by looking at the past and future of gastronomy in the region.
Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants 2021: Pasado y Futuro, sponsored by S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna, will identify the greatest eateries in the region of the last nine years through a list of 100 restaurants created by aggregating the full voting data of all previous editions. The retrospective ‘greatest hits’ list will be revealed simultaneously at a series of live events held in key cities across the region on Monday, 22nd November. The events will culminate in the announcement of The Greatest Restaurant in Latin America 2013-2021, sponsored by S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna.
Catch up on what happened at Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants 2020:
While the list itself will celebrate the excellence of Latin American gastronomy by looking back at the venues that have left a mark over the last nine years, the special awards to be announced as part of the programme will focus on the future of the region’s gastronomic scene, recognising those individuals and restaurants that are helping to create positive change and a better tomorrow.
Some of the brand’s usual accolades will be returning, but with a new focus for 2021. The Latin America’s Best Female Chef Award will honour a rising star putting forward a new vision of gastronomy, while the American Express One To Watch Award will recognise a restaurant that opened within the last two years showing originality and promise. The Macallan Icon Award will celebrate an individual whose work is effecting long-lasting change in the industry, and the Estrella Damm Chefs’ Choice Award will honour a chef who has successfully reinvented themselves or their restaurant during the pandemic, creating a fresh blueprint for the future. Other awards to be announced will include the Gin Mare Art of Hospitality Award and the Flor de Caña Sustainable Restaurant Award.
On Monday, 22nd November, the Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants 2021 local live events will gather the gastronomic communities of Latin America to celebrate unity, resilience and recovery. The announcement of the one-off ‘greatest hits’ ranking will also provide food-loving travellers with an influential guide of the very best places to eat in the region, featuring only restaurants that are open or intending to reopen at the time of publication.
50 Best aims to return to a regular annual ranking in Latin America in 2022 and will continue to celebrate and recognise the diversity and richness of culinary cultures across the region through its lists, special awards and associated content.
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