Food critic Jonathan Gold condemns 'World's 50 Best' restaurant awards over lack of diversity

The awards list has previously been criticised for choosing only expensive, high-end restaurants 

Chelsea Ritschel
in New York
Thursday 21 June 2018 22:23 BST
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Jonathan Gold criticises awards over lack of diversity (Getty)
Jonathan Gold criticises awards over lack of diversity (Getty)

This year’s list of the “World’s 50 Best” restaurants has been condemned by a renowned food critic who says he was shocked by the lack of diversity.

Jonathan Gold, a Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic, voiced his grievances with the list in an article for the Los Angeles Times.

His first concern was with the use of the word “World,” which he believes is an inaccurate description of the list - considering the majority of the restaurants happen to be from the same continent.

“Does the list really represent the world? Not really - a little more than half of the restaurants are European. Latin American and Asia score seven restaurants each, and there is a scant single entry from Australia and Africa,” Gold wrote.

However, what bothered Gold the most about this year’s list was the omission of women chefs.

Acknowledging that “Chef is not a gendered position,” Gold couldn’t help but notice that women-run restaurants were not well-represented on the list of global offerings.

Just three out of 50 are run by women - “which is odd in this year of #MeToo,” he wrote. “The committee’s reluctance to promote like-minded chefs Dominique Crenn, Anne-Sophie Pic or Nadia Santini, to name just three women it has awarded Best Female Chef, is perverse, short-sighted and wrong.”

Gold isn’t the only person to point out what’s wrong with the awards, which regularly feature mostly high-end restaurants serving expensive food ordered from tasting menus.

Eater also acknowledged the issues with the “50 Best Awards,” mainly that the restaurants on the list are “50 per cent European, shockingly expensive, inexcusably male, and with strong neo-colonialist overtones.”

The lack of diversity is perhaps most surprising considering the large group of chefs, writers, and consultants, as well as 1,000 voters, who choose the winners.

In comparison, the James Beard Foundation awarded 11 out of 16 culinary awards to women, people of colour, or both a month ago, according to Eater - proving it is possible to celebrate talent and diversity in the culinary industry.

This year’s World’s 50 Best Restaurants was topped by Osteria Francescana in Italy, followed by El Celler de Can Roca in Spain, Mirazur in France, and Eleven Madison Park in New York.

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