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International restaurant awards announces judging changes for 2019
The World’s 50 Best Restaurants will introduce a 50-50 gender-split panel for this year’s awards, which claim to provide a definitive ranking of the world’s top 50 establishments. It will also introduce a ‘Best of the Best’ program, removing #1 restaurants from voting eligibility year on year, in order to refresh the ranking. The awards’ current makeup has been repeatedly criticised for its lack of diversity, particularly concerning its coverage of women, global regions, and pricing at awarded restaurants. The divisive ‘Best Female Chef’ award, currently held by London’s Clare Smyth, will remain in place, with awards director Hélène Pietrini reasserting the way that a second tier awards category “inspires younger women to reach the heights of their chosen profession” last October. Time will tell whether the restaurant awards’ changes in criteria go far enough.
U.K.’s most popular pizza chain pivots from cookie cutter to pizza cutter
Pizza Express will launch Za on Fenchurch Street, a new fast-casual pizza slice concept sure to be imitated in New York.
‘All natural’ bakery joins Fortnum and Mason at Royal Exchange...
Cutter and Squidge will bring its “less is best” approach to fat and sugar in sweet, baked goods to the City with a new boutique at the Royal Exchange, home of Fortnum and Mason’s latest restaurant. Opens 11 February.
... While plant-based, raw food doesn’t fly in trendy east London
Essence has closed on Leonard Street in Shoreditch — perhaps London’s appetite for vegan dogma isn’t as healthy as might be assumed.