Top chefs angry over 50 restaurant rankings: "Everything's personal, it's an addictive game"
Along with the great praise received by the chefs who topped the list of the 50 best restaurants in the Middle East, in recent days quite a few voices of anger have also been heard from senior chefs, who are left off the list, and claim - not for the right reasons. "
Yael Laor
10/02/2022
Thursday, 10 February 2022, 13:15 Updated: 13:23
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Are these the best chefs in Israel? (Photo: PR San Pellegrino)
The ranking of the 50 best restaurants in San Pellegrino in the Middle East, which took place on Tuesday in Abu Dhabi, and which included six Israeli restaurants, caused quite a stir in the local cuisine. Only not all of them are positive. And expressed anger and bewilderment at the choice.One
of them told us yesterday "Whoever was there is huge, there are those I envy in their abilities, there is one I wanted to get up and go in the middle of a meal because he was good, but in the end such lists, whether it was time out or Michelin, Or the 50 restaurants of San Pellegrino, it's a matter of cliques. "
I realized that more chefs had a critique of the list
.
It is impossible to say that there were no good chefs there.
But we see that this is a list of 'friends of' ".
More on Walla!
For the first time: 6 Israeli restaurants on the prestigious BEST 50 list
To the full article
Raz Rahav wins the title of best restaurant in Israel (Photo: PR San Pellegrino)
Another senior chef told us in response to the list that "First of all it is very important for me to make it clear that whoever is chosen is definitely worthy, I have other claims that everyone is talking about - there are enough worthy and more worthy restaurants that should also be on the list, I represent one. I think it's a mistake to think "That the focus is on the Mediterranean, what's more, look at the list, in the first twenty they are all Asian or Japanese, not to mention the great embarrassment that the first restaurant is like Zuzubra, and in second place Zuma, which is a chain, and a restaurant that has not been relevant for a decade."
"The second thing that is hard to ignore," he claims, "is that everyone knows who the judges are, and some are vested in interests. In the end, this is a very problematic choice in the local context. How do you make relativity if the judges are local? On places and you only had to enter the names of restaurants in the relevant places. "
"I already knew four months ago what the choices were and that my restaurants are not inside. It creates frustration, we experience unpleasant feelings here, it suddenly becomes a populist list, it's like in the Knesset, there is nothing real here."
But if your restaurants are working and full, does it really matter?
"In the end it's disappointing because you do want to get recognition for what you do. We do not have Michelin in the country, so until there is such a thing, that can give a stage to whoever deserves it, at the end of the list is addicted."
"We got there and we were in a market where Taizo is not inside" (Photo: Dan Peretz)
Another chef, owner of several successful restaurants in the country told us: "On a personal level it's annoying, I feel the chefs who entered the list are a personal matter. "I was called full of people to ask how my restaurants were not inside, I did not know what to say, it was a list that did not seem to make sense."
He went on to say, "If this list were true, 30 restaurants from Israel should have entered, and not 6, because we know the level of restaurants in Dubai and the region, compared to the level in Israel."
One of the people present at the ceremony in Abu Dhabi told us "it makes sense to have a grudge, the list is puzzling, no doubt, strange, so it's not surprising. As it seems, next year it will already have a different character. "Inside, they said it was probably because it's Asian cuisine, and in the end you will see how many other Asian restaurants have made the list."
He added that "we ate in Abu Dhabi at a restaurant that came in 25th place on the list, I can tell you that I ate at twenty-five better restaurants than it in Tel Aviv."
Roi Yerushalmi, the Israeli judges' representative in the competition (Photo: Walla! NEWS system, Avner Hajabi)
The name that comes up again and again in the claims of the angry chefs is the name of the food journalist Roi Yerushalmi, who was Israel's judges' representative in the competition, and who was supposed to appoint the judges, weigh their votes, but according to the chefs, his personal choices and preferences were too much. In the final results.
One of the top chefs in the country said today that he thinks it should be revealed who chose the restaurants and according to what parameters.
Other chefs claimed that the restaurants chosen were ultimately friends and associates of Yerushalmi, and the reason that restaurants that found themselves outside, such as those in the front row of restaurants in Israel, stems from his personal revenge.
"It's unpleasant to know you're not there," one of the chefs interviewed for the article told us, "but in the end if it's the person the organization gives him such power, then I do not want to be a part of it anyway."
The response of the organizers of the competition was not received until the publication of the article.
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