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Asia’s 50 best

The prodigious and the virtuous of Asia’s restaurant industry gathered at the Wynn Palace Macau last week for the announcement of the S Pellegrino and Acqua Panna Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2018, reports Rupali Dean

Asia’s 50 best

Gaggan Anand

Gaggan, the Indian restaurant in Bangkok, took the first place for the fourth year in a row but there were two winners from India as well. In a press conference post the awards ceremony for the S Pellegrino and Acqua Panna Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2018, held at the Wynn Palace, Macau, on the night of 27 March, Chef Gaggan Anand said, in 2015, when the restaurant first topped the list “everyone thought it was a fluke”.

“The second year, people thought we had bribed,” the culinary magician continued. “The third year, we won it. This year, we don’t have to prove we won it.” Gaggan is scheduled to shut down in 2020!

On the challenges of staying on top, Gaggan commented, “We change our menu completely every four months. About 80 per cent of the dishes we test go into the bin.”

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He further said, “A guest might eat at my restaurant numerous times a year but when he says that the menu he ate this time was enhanced than the last time, not that the menu last time was better than this one, that’s significant, but that’s the test I face.”

India had two winners on this year’s list in the S Pellegrino and Acqua Panna Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2018. The country saw Indian Accent, at No 19, led by Manish Mehrotra, and Wasabi at Taj Mahal Mumbai on No 49.

Other large winners were Den in Tokyo, at No 2; Taiwanese chef André Chiang, who won the Lifetime Achievement Award; and Bee Satongun of Paste in Bangkok, who was named Asia’s Best Female Chef, with her restaurant at No 31.

Furthermore, amid those taking home trophies were Che’’s Choice Award winner Yoshihiro Narisawa of Japan’s Narisawa also at No 6; Ultraviolet by Paul Pairet in Shanghai at No 8, which won the Art of Hospitality Award; and Toyo Eatery in Manila, which was named The One to Watch.

That said, there is a heck of a lot of good food in Asia, whether on or off the list. Asia’s 50 Best obviously highlights only a slight cross-section of what is available, but it is aiding to focus the world’s culinary attention on Asia and its cuisine. That can only be a good thing.

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