The World's 50 Best Restaurants Launches Recovery Hub
The organization behind The World's 50 Best Restaurants is replacing its annual ranking, awards and related events with a three-pronged campaign, entitled 50 Best for Recovery. The aim is to provide tangible financial relief where possible, as well as create and collate helpful resources for restaurant businesses as they emerge from the pandemic.
The 50 Best Recovery Fund, with the backing of founding donor S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna, will be utilized to support a range of nonprofit organizations working in different parts of the globe to aid the survival and eventual revival of the restaurant sector. Funds will be raised through donations from 50 Best's partners as well as a range of accessible initiatives through which diners will be able to give back to their beloved restaurant industry.
50 Best has also launched a 50 Best Recovery Hub to gather and generate online content that will offer advice, information and inspiration for the sector, as well as for food-lovers looking to play their part in sustaining and rebuilding the industry.
50 Best will host a virtual Recovery Summit over several days in September, with a focus on exploring how the restaurant world can thrive once again. Comprising a range of events including masterclasses, talks, case studies, interviews and discussion forums, the Summit will gather the global gastronomic community together online to share learnings, promote best practices and explore visions of a post-pandemic world for restaurants and diners.
After consulting with the restaurant community and analyzing feedback, 50 Best has concluded that these three pillars support the areas where restaurants require assistance most. 50 Best for Recovery will provide essential fiscal stimulus, a source of reliable and regularly updated information and create a focal point where the community can share its experiences and look to the future.
William Drew, Director of Content for The World's 50 Best Restaurants, says, "With 50 Best for Recovery, we aim to utilize our network, our relationships and our global reach to provide tangible help to as many restaurant businesses as possible across the world. We stand alongside our partners in supporting the gastronomic community as a whole and fervently hope we can assist in promoting and accelerating the rebirth of restaurants of all types after this unprecedented period of suffering. We truly believe we can and must all work in unison to give back to the restaurant sector and ultimately help shape a fresh and positive future."
Over the coming weeks, 50 Best will launch a series of fundraising initiatives to encourage further contributions to the Recovery Fund, from corporate donors and consumers alike. This will include a 50 Best 'Bid for Recovery' Auction in June, offering food lovers the opportunity to bid for out-of-this-world gastronomic experiences from the restaurants and chefs featured on the most recent list.
It will also publish an e-cookbook, "Home Comforts: simple lockdown recipes from the world's best chefs and bartenders," which will be downloadable in return for a small donation, as well as a #50BestRateMyPlate social media contest open to foodies across the globe. Home cooks will be challenged to prepare dishes inspired by the cookbook, with the best offerings judged by the relevant chefs and posted on 50 Best's social feed. Further details of how to participate in all these fundraising programs will be released before each initiative.
The launch of 50 Best for Recovery follows the announcement in March that the proposed event program for The World's 50 Best Restaurants 2020, which was due to take place in Antwerp, Belgium, in June — has been postponed until 2021. The annual list of the world's finest dining destinations will not be released this year in any format. Instead, those restaurants voted onto the 2020 ranking-designate will be fully recognized in 2021, circumstances permitting.