AREA TALKS: DIALOGS THAT GENERATE CHANGE
POWERED BY THE BEST CHEFS AWARD

AREA TALKS came back on September 14th 2021 as a part of the exciting itinerary that THE BEST CHEF AWARDS powered by Perlage was bringing to Amsterdam. After previous year’s #VIRTUAL2020 edition, chefs, foodies, journalists, and experts from the culinary world met in person again to share knowledge and discuss four main topics: The Future of Fine Dining, The Dark and Bright Sides of Gastronomy, Dutch Gastronomy and What is Sustainability?

AREA TALKS

September 14th 2021 marked the return of AREA TALKS, one of the main events on THE BEST CHEF AWARDS calendar, created to provide all sorts of experts related to the culinary world with a platform to share and exchange opinions, ideas and knowledge. “We are convinced that discussion is really important and we aim to encourage experts like chefs, scientists, business owners, producers, journalists or any other, to exchange knowledge and learn from each other. The Best Chef is a global platform and even though we have a lot of differences in every culture, we all share a lot of the same issues and challenges when it comes to gastronomy/ catering?.” explained Joanna Slusarczyk, neuroscientist and one of the founders of THE BEST CHEF.

After a successful virtual edition of the previous year that brought together 21 speakers from different corners of the world, THE BEST CHEF AWARDS team was more than happy to go BACK TO “LIVE”, BACK TO REALITY with this year’s four topics.

The Future of Fine Dining

Starting with The Future of fine dining, a discussion panel where Sven Elverfeld from AQUA restaurant, Manu Buffara from Manu restaurant, Gerhard Hubner,  Kaja Sajovic and Raymond Wilders shared inspirational ideas and points of view on what can be expected after the pandemic that took the industry by surprise. What are the new and future trends? How do experts see the future of fine dining? Will anything change in fine dining?

The dark and bright sides of gastronomy

The second topic was The Dark and Bright sides of Gastronomy, a panel where no topic was off the table, regardless of its controversial nature. Michael van der Kroft from Tres, Syrco Bakker from Pure C and Jermain de Rozario from De Rozario and Rodolfo Guzmán from Boragó and Tim Goldsteijn from Bougainville debated issues like conditions in the workplace, mental health and sexism, just to name a few.

Dutch Gastronomy

To honour the host country, the third topic was Dutch Gastronomy with speakers Jonnie and Therese Boer from De Librije, Jan Jacob Boerma, Soenil Bahadoer from De Lindehof, Marleen and and Joël Broekaert – Dutch culinary journalist. Together they discussed the past, present and future of local fine dining in a country that wasn’t necessarily known for its gastronomic tradition but that managed to raise the bar and position Dutch cuisine at a top international level.

About Sustainability

The climax of the day came with What is sustainability? It is not a new subject but one that THE BEST CHEFS AWARDS organisation was very focused on. Hannah van Zanten from Wageningen University, Joris Bijdendijk from RIJKS restaurant, Ana Roš from Hiša Franko and Antonia Klugmann from L’Argine a Venco’, Davbiz Munoz from DiverXO and journalist Lisa Lesch Palmer debated on exciting and innovative solutions of a problem that affects us all. What is the general situation in gastronomy? Can fine dining be sustainable? What could restaurants do to become greener? Should restaurants use less meat and more vegetables?