With the food and drink world experiencing the unprecedented impact of the international pandemic, 50 Best’s Director of Content shares a message of unity
Solidarity and support. This is what we can offer to each other in these uniquely difficult times. As Covid-19 takes a stranglehold on all our businesses, routines and ways of life, it reminds us to focus on what really matters.
Every day we are speaking to chefs, bartenders and customers who tell us new stories of hardship. And with each person we speak to, our resolve grows: in times of crisis, we need to use the strength of our network to help others.
Supply chains are broken. Dining rooms are empty. Back bars have been drained of stock and the regular rhythm of global gastronomy has largely come to a sharp halt. But now is the time to show what a truly amazing industry this can be. 50 Best will endeavour to use its position and network to highlight, support and amplify many of the amazing initiatives that we are seeing in all corners of the globe – and we ask for your contribution and support in that process.
For those in the hospitality sector, today we open a dialogue – via this survey – that will look to garner some key details about your operations, local initiatives, challenges you face and potential solutions. Please do take a few minutes to engage with this; we see it as a key tool in the fight to keep the industry moving in this time of unprecedented and unique need.
From this, we simply ask our wider community of food and drink lovers across the globe to help where you can. One small step is to read our upcoming article, 11 coronavirus initiatives from restaurants and bars around the world – and how you can help, and respond as you see fit with your actions. As a community, let’s stick together to display unity rather than feed division. Please take this as our invitation to reach out: be it on social media, over email, on the phone or through our survey, let us start the conversation together.
For the team at 50 Best – just as for others around the world – we have colleagues who are sick; family members stranded on the other side of the world; our headquarters in lockdown. Yet, even as we work remotely and sometimes in isolation, our collective spirit remains positive. We don’t know when we will next be working together face to face, but we believe emphatically that we can come through this stronger and more determined to connect and unify our food-and-drink community – consumers and workers alike – across the globe.
On Tuesday, 24th March, we will publish the list of Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2020. Those in Asia were the first to be affected by this virus, and we hope will be the first to start to recover. We believe that restaurants and chefs in Asia not only deserve recognition, but also need our support right now. Furthermore, the gastronomic community in Asia has specifically asked that we proceed with this edition of the list, albeit in a very different form to usual, in a bid to shine some positive light into the darkness.
Our aim is to keep the community connected, to support each other and to prepare for recovery once the situation improves. In the meantime, we send our very best wishes that you all stay healthy and safe.
