It was fun to participate in this first edition of "The World Restaurant Awards"Last night in Paris, in that Brongniart Palace that was once the stock exchange. The prize created by the English journalist Joe Warwick among the founders of "The World's 50 Best Restaurants" and ours Andrea Petrini, influencers and talent scouts of gastronomy, together with the event agency IMG, covered the most disparate and creative categories.

With music, including Pink Floyd, and with the television presenter Antoine de Caunes, explosive and funny as always, who spoke a perfect English-speaking guy making the audience laugh (of the series you have to speak French to understand his English), they are nominated shows and winners of 18 categories.
The most surreal were the "Tattoo free chef of the year" award Alain Ducasse, which was rewarded for the skin completely diaphanous and free of tattoos with an equally white plate symbol of the event. Monsieur commented that he does not even think about getting a tattoo in this life (too busy with his Ducasse sur Seine, the Bateux Mouches gourmet that has just inaugurated) but that, if it were, you would tattoo a little square of chocolate.
Strange also the prize assigned to Alain Passard for the best Instagram profile: the three-star Michelin chef of L'Arpège in Paris, famous for his vegetables, won the award with great confidence: «I do not do anything special, every day is like the first, I love my work".
Among the presenters there were also mega musicians like Laurent Garnier, hero of French techno who awarded the prize for the best atmosphere at Jordan Kahn Vespertine, the Los Angeles restaurant with a unique concept where dishes are a magical game, sometimes even empty … "I called architects, noses, musicians to invent my concept," he says.
Bravo too Riccardo Camanini Lido 84 in Gardone Riviera, which won the "House special" award with its cheese and pepper cooked in the pig's bladder; and good too Lara Gilmore that with Refettorio and its "Food for Soul" initiative (the non-profit association created to fight social inclusion waste), it received the "Ethical Thinking" award.
The restaurant of the year is Wolfgat in Paternoster, South Africa, above Cape Town. Kobus van der Merwe, the chef, every morning he goes to the beach in front of the restaurant to look for the raw material. I think it's worth the trip.