Plans for Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants 2021 have been upended by the pandemic for a second consecutive year. Last year a virtual edition of the celebrations – awarding the top spot to Buenos Aires steak restaurant Don Julio – replaced the large-scale event that the gastronomic world is more accustomed to.
This year, the 50 Best team have eschewed the usual awards format entirely and will instead host a series of smaller live events across key cities in the region in a one-off celebration called Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants 2013-2021: pasado y futuro (meaning past and future).
Using aggregated votes of the previous eight editions of the ranking since the awards’ inception in 2013, the event, on 22 November, will celebrate a list of the 100 most influential restaurants of the region in the past nine years.
Power of unity and recovery
“We are excited to present this special one-off edition of Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants 2013-2021: Pasado y Futuro. The local city events will give the gastronomic communities of Latin America the chance to come together again to celebrate the power of unity and recovery during challenging times,” says William Drew, director of content for Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants. “The ranking will also provide food-loving travellers with a powerful gastronomic reference point when international travel becomes the norm once again.”
Returning to local physical events across the region after going virtual last year – a period during which 50 Best also devoted its resources to its 50 Best for Recovery fundraising project raising $1.29m to support 200 restaurants and bars – Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants 2021 aims to will provide chefs, restaurateurs, media and food lovers with an opportunity to recognise the resilience and achievements of both individuals and restaurant teams.
While this year’s special events will provide a retrospective of the most influential restaurants in Latin America in the past nine years, the regular special awards – including the best female chef, the most sustainable restaurant and the art of hospitality award – will still be celebrated and will remain focused on the future.
The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2021 is scheduled to be unveiled in a live event in Antwerp on 5 October. Latin America’s 50 Best restaurants will return in its regular format for 2022.
Tina Nielsen
