Food Meets Hope opens 50 Best Recovery Summit

The World's 50 Best Recovery Summit kicked off on 13 October with the event Food Meets Hope by S.Pellegrino.

As a long-term partner of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants and co-founder of the 50 Best for Recovery programme, S.Pellegrino welcomed the opportunity to open this three-day online summit exploring the restaurant sector's road to recovery.

Food Meets Hope investigated three distinct themes: Recovery, Inclusivity and Evolution.

The Recovery section featured a selection of restaurateurs who received grants as part of the World’s 50 Best Bid for Recovery auction.

During the Inclusivity section, participants heard powerful first-hand testimonies from African American chef Erick Williams of Virtue in Chicago, who talked about the diversity of cooking styles across the seven continents, and from US-Mexican restaurateur Daniela Soto-Innes (winner of The World’s Best Female chef award in 2019) who stated that “During these times I realise how cooking and restaurants are an evolving form of art. So, it becomes more important to me that people who work with me can be themselves in any way they want”.Then culinary researcher Ivan Brehm of Nouri, Singapore, advocated for new perspectives on identity via his ‘crossroads cuisine’ concept.

The Evolution section considered how to develop a more sustainable and viable restaurant model. First Julia Colagreco of Mirazur, Menton, highlighted the importance of consuming local produce, an idea developed by Tim Raue of Berlin’s Restaurant Tim Raue, who agreed: “It is absolutely mandatory for the future that we are sustainable, we have to appreciate we are a family and there is no alternative.” Richard Ekkebus of Amber, Hong Kong added that sustainability and social inclusion are the right values for the future, while Dominique Crenn of Atelier Crenn, San Francisco, looked for the silver lining in the crisis, reflecting that “Perhaps one benefit of this experience is that it has allowed us to come together and create a better, more forward-thinking future.”

During the summit, S.Pellegrino also presented a series of daily live interviews on Instagram with top chefs. First, Bjorn Frantzén of Frantzén in Stockholm and Zén in Singapore offered his insights based on overseeing restaurants in different continents. The following day, May Chow of Little Bao in Hong Kong and Bangkok discussed what it’s like to manage a casual-dining concept during a pandemic. And finally, Daniel Humm of Eleven Madison Park in NYC outlined his personal vision for recovery.

Find out what else S.Pellegrino is doing to help restaurants get through the current crisis and rebuild the industry under the #SupportRestaurants initiative.