Culinary Centre, said: “We are thrilled by the diversity and caliber of our Top 20 finalists, who show the powerful, positive change chefs can make when they take on the responsibility of a public voice. Their stories will surely serve as an inspiration to their colleagues all over the world, which is the ultimate mission of the prize. It will be a difficult but exciting challenge for the Jury to choose one winner this summer.”
The overall winner will be chosen from the top twenty by a Prize Jury when they meet to make their final deliberations at the annual meeting of the International Committee of the Basque Culinary Centre on 11 July this year. The Prize Jury will include the chefs on the International Council of the Basque Culinary Center including Joan Roca (Spain): Gastón Acurio (Peru), Ferran Adrià (Spain), Alex Atala (Brazil), Dan Barber (US), Heston Blumenthal (UK), Massimo Bottura (Italy), Michel Bras (France), Dominique Crenn (France), Yukio Hattori (Japan), Enrique Olvera (Mexico), Yoshihiro Narisawa (Japan) and René Redzepi (Denmark)
To judge the prize, the Council will be joined by leading experts in related disciplines, including US food scientist and writer Harold McGee; Massimo Montanari, a professor of Medieval History at Bologna University and one of the leading world experts in Food Studies; renowned novelist Laura Esquivel; and Hilal Elver, Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
The winner will receive €100,000 to devote to an institution or project of their choice that demonstrates the wider role of gastronomy in society.
