50 Best’s thought-leadership series #50BestTalks, presented by Miele, returns in 2020 with the first instalment set to take place as part of the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants programme in Saga Prefecture, Japan. Discover who will be taking to the stage on Monday, 23rd March, to challenge the widespread myths around gastronomy in the region
To create innovation, some rules have to be broken. This is as true for the kitchen as it is in wider society, where legends use their voice to rally against the accepted norms and ask ‘why’ we do things in the manner that we do. To break new ground and move gastronomy forward, some ideologies are there to be questioned and that is exactly what the latest edition of #50BestTalks intends to do. 50 Best has brought together a group of culinary trailblazers who will share their personal stories of evolution and revolution.
#50BestTalks: Shattering Myths, presented by Miele, will take place on Monday, 23rd March, at the Takeo Century Hotel in Saga Prefecture, Japan, ahead of the unveiling of the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2020 list the following day. The line-up of pioneering speakers includes Yuki Chidui, chef of Nadeshico Sushi and founder of Nadeshico Sushi School in Tokyo; Richard Ekkebus, executive chef of Amber in Hong Kong; Cho Hee-sook, chef-owner of Hansikgonggan in Seoul; Ivan Brehm, chef of Nouri in Singapore; and Natsuko Shoji, chef of Été in Tokyo. Learn more about each of the speakers and discover the myths they will be dispelling.
Yuki Chidui – Nadeshico Sushi, Tokyo, Japan
Sushi revolution
Growing up in Japan, Yuki Chidui dreamt of becoming a sushi chef – but the best job she could get at a sushi restaurant was to help prepare the rice behind the scenes. Making sushi, especially at the counter in front of the customer as is usual in Japan, was traditionally considered a man’s job. Unwilling to play by these rules, Chidui opened Nadeshico Sushi in 2010, the first all-female sushi restaurant in the country. Here, she trained countless sushi chefs, giving them to chance to break into a traditionally male-dominated industry and fight myriad gender stereotypes in the process. In 2019, she founded Nadeshico Sushi School, which offers courses to equip women with the skills needed to run a successful sushi business – and thus propel the latest sushi revolution forward.
Richard Ekkebus – Amber, Hong Kong, China
Ethical gastronomy
Open since 2005, Amber has become one of Hong Kong’s most iconic restaurants. Chef Richard Ekkebus’ tasting menu, the Mandarin Oriental’s lavish surroundings and the restaurant’s well-researched wine list had all contributed to making it one of the essential places to eat in the city. But by 2019, Ekkebus had started to notice changes in his customers’ awareness of food sustainability and healthy eating. Rather than sit on his laurels, the Dutch-born chef rolled up his sleeves and re-thought Amber for his evolving clientele. Since April 2019, the restaurant features a dairy and gluten-free menu, a gender-balanced kitchen, and a renewed focus on sustainability on all levels, while still retaining its feel of quality. Ekkebus’s belief that luxury doesn’t have to be opulent led him to craft a new vision for his cuisine: ethical gastronomy.
Cho Hee-sook – Hansikgonggan, Seoul, South Korea
Ancient future of Hansik
In Korea, Cho Hee-sook is the name on every aspiring chef’s lips. The leading expert on Korean food culture, recipes and traditions, Cho has been studying and sharing her knowledge of her country’s cuisine for over 30 years. After mentoring and teaching cooks in Korea and around the world, in 2019 she became chef-owner of Hansikgonggan, a small restaurant in Seoul where she now focuses on reinventing Korean palace cuisine recipes for the 21st century. The main ambassador for Korean cuisine is now taking her place in the spotlight and bringing a still-undiscovered cuisine to the world stage, dismantling the myths that surround it and promoting a clear vision of her country’s culinary potential.
Ivan Brehm – Nouri, Singapore
Crossroads cuisine: beyond nations
Brazilian-born chef Ivan Brehm opened Nouri in 2017, following years of work with some of modern cuisine’s biggest luminaries, including Heston Blumenthal of The Fat Duck in the UK, and Andoni Luis Aduriz of Mugaritz in Spain. These eye-opening experiences, as well as Brehm’s own eclectic heritage that mixes Italian, German, Russian, Spanish, Lebanese and Syrian, convinced him that to create his own restaurant, he’d have to look beyond existing ideologies. At Nouri, Brehm’s vision is executed as ‘crossroads cuisine’, a buzzword the chef uses to highlight the many connections in food history existing across the globe. Finding parallels between global food cultures even hundreds of thousands of miles apart, Brehm has created his own personal style, telling a unique story about world gastronomy.
Natsuko Shoji – Été, Tokyo, Japan
Cake unveiling and Q&A
Été, Natsuko Shoji’s restaurant, is nothing like your average eatery. It features six seats, opens only for a limited number of sittings a month, and is complemented by the chef’s cake lab, where she crafts delicate and eye-catching sweet creations for clients that have included Ferran Adrià and David Beckham. Previously the sous chef at restaurant Florilège, Shoji takes inspiration from fashion, art and the best Japanese produce to create unique pieces of culinary art unlike anything you’ve seen before. Rather than following the same formula as other chefs in the capital, Shoji has carved herself a singular place in Tokyo’s ever-growing and ever-competitive food scene.
Stay tuned to watch the videos and read the highlights from #50BestTalks: Shattering Myths following the event on Monday 23rd March.
Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2020, sponsored by S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna, will be revealed on Tuesday 24th March in Takeo, Saga Prefecture, Japan. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube to stay up to date with the latest announcements, news and features.
