Nominations for an international award billed as the ‘Nobel Prize’ of the food world are open.
Organizers of the Basque Culinary World Prize are inviting professionals in the industry — be it chefs, food writers, food suppliers or institutions — to nominate a chef who has “improved society through gastronomy.”
Launched last year out by the Basque Culinary Center, a leading gastronomic university in San Sebastian, Spain, the award is worth €100,000 and must be used to further a project that demonstrates the wider role of gastronomy in society. The competition is also supported by a collective of some of the most high-profile do-gooder chefs in the world, including Joan Roca (Spain), Gaston Acurio (Peru), Heston Blumenthal (UK), Michel Bras (France) and Dan Barber (USA), who will sit on the jury to determine the winner.
“Cooking is not an end in itself, but a pathway to achieve more important things. It has real power to transform society because it touches everything: education, the environment, entrepreneurship, cultural identity, agriculture, trade,” said jury member Acurio, a chef who has been credited with single-handedly revolutionizing Peruvian cuisine at home and abroad.
