Another ‘Anti-Ranking’ Restaurant Awards Will Pass Judgment on London

A new restaurant anti-ranking is coming, apparently

Michelin and World’s 50 Best will have a new competitor, a new competitor in which Michelin has a 40 percent stake. Le Fooding, which launched in 2000 as an alternative to Michelin’s starry, starchy approach to classification, is launching Le Fooding’s Priceless Cities Best New Bistro Awards, which will be sponsored by Mastercard. It will focus on new openings, at a price point between €30-€100 per person, in London, Paris, New York, and Mexico City. A shortlist of three restaurants will be submitted to a public vote, too. This, and Le Fooding’s pedigree for finding genuinely interesting restaurants in Paris before they became globally acclaimed, offers hope that the awards will be interesting; whether or not a Michelin-backed, Mastercard-sponsored look at still rather expensive restaurants in four of the world’s most internationally-gawped-over food cities constitutes an “anti-ranking” is another matter. [Malay Mail]

And in other news...

• Michelin’s social media game continues to evolve, with the restaurant guide now asking Instagram users for permission to nab their photos.
• Hakkasan executive chef Tong Chee Hwee has left after 18 years at the head of the international restaurant group — he presided over Hakkasan Hanway Place when it became the first U.K. Chinese restaurant to receive a Michelin star. [Big Hospitality]
• Honest Burgers continues to show that doing meat-in-a-bun well is a reliable growth option in a squeezed casual market with a new restaurant in the London Bridge station development. On the corner of Tooley Street and Bermondsey Street, it joins Patty and Bun and Borough Market’s litany of burger options, including Honest’s own Borough restaurant. [Big Hospitality]
• Brexit consultation on preventing food shortages contributed to a total £97 million awarded to firms by the government. [BBC]
• All of Heathrow’s restaurants will be Marine Conservation Society-accredited as sustainable by June 2020. [Guardian]
• One burglar had his priorities straight, visiting Burger King to use a stolen credit card just an hour after the theft. [Metro]
• At least one video about food that has gone viral on Facebook is... Full of lies. [CNN]

Good tweet: