Eight Belgian restaurants feature in the first ever longlist published by the World Restaurant Awards which was released earlier today. Another, Belgian pop-up and concept features in the ethical thinking category.
The restaurants are Chambre Separee in Gent, The Jane in Antwerp, De Jonkman in Bruges, Bon Bon, Bozar Restaurant and Humphrey in Brussels, L’ Air du Temps in Liernu and Hertog Jan in Zedelgem. They join Mary Pop-in, a concept by Eatmosphere which raises awareness on food waste in the ethical thinking category.
100 judges which include some of the top names in the restaurant world as well as food writers and influencers have nominated nearly 300 restaurants for the first ever long list featuring 18 categories (12 so called Big Plates and 6 Small Plates).
Kobe Desramaults’ restaurant Chambre Separee in Gent features in the Atmosphere of the Year category.
Hertog Jan, of chef Gert De Mangeleer and Joachim Boudens which closes its doors next week was nominated for the trolley of the year, a category which puts table service in the spotlight.
Belgium fared best in the Collaboration of the Year category where three chefs/restaurants have been longlisted. The first nomination is that of Nick Bril from The Jane for his collaboration with Nature Tableware. The chef of The Jane created a range of environmentally friendly disposal plates. Another nomination was for Filip Claeys De Jonkman. The chef is the founder of North Sea Chefs which encourages the use of fish that is caught but not necessarily popular or wanted. Christophe Hardiquest of Restaurant Bon Bon was the third nominee in this category for the collaboration with Brussels lambic brewery Cantillon as part of his Bon Bon Origins project.
Karen Torosyan of Bozar Restaurant was nominated for his ‘legendary’ millefeuille in the House Special category.
L’ Air du Temps and Humphrey are the two restaurants that have been nominated in the Forward Drinking category.
It is not known yet whether any of the above restaurants will be among the restaurants short-listed.
The shortlists will be announced in January. They are currently being judged by members of the panel.
For the first time ever the judging panel is 50/50 gender neutral, a first for awards of these kind. The members of the voting panel can be found here.
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