50 Best’s New Year’s Resolution: ‘ Hope for Hospitality ‘ 2022

50 Best sets out its resolution and ambitions for the year to come by way of the 50 Best ‘Hope for Hospitality’ manifesto (see below). In the spirit of the holiday season, taking the opportunity to reflect on the unprecedented nature of the last two years – and the challenges and tribulations that have ensued – 50 Best looks ahead with renewed spirit and optimism for 2022.

In 2020 and into 2021, due to COVID-19, 50 Best pivoted from publishing its annual ranking and hosting live events to focus on fundraising and supporting the hospitality sector through its ‘50 Best for Recovery’ programme, which included raising $1.29m with the support of its partners. 50 Best for Recovery distributed grants to more than 200 restaurants and bars from 53 countries and donated to a series of non-profit organisations in the food and drink sector. 50 Best also launched its first charity e-book, Home Comforts: simple lockdown recipes from the world’s best chefs and bartenders; the Recovery Summit and the online Recovery Hub, which collected content to offer advice, information and inspiring stories for the sector when it needed it most.

As the organisation looks ahead to 2022, recovery and rebuilding is ongoing, and 50 Best remains steadfast in its commitment to the hospitality sector and vision for the future. The new year kicks off with the launch of the highly anticipated Middle East & North Africa’s 50 Best Restaurants with the awards being held in Abu Dhabi in February 2022, shining a much-deserved and long overdue spotlight on the region as a world-class culinary destination. An exciting line-up of consumer-focused events will bring some of the most distinguished chefs from around the world to the Middle East, in addition to celebrating local and regional culinary talent.

February will also witness the second edition of 50 Next, an annual list of young people shaping the future of gastronomy, which first launched in April 2021. Formed through robust research and analysis by 50 Best in partnership with the internationally renowned Basque Culinary Center, 50 Next showcases a diverse global selection of bright young minds who have turned their ideas into reality. The unranked list aims to inspire, empower and connect young people who are truly pushing boundaries and tackling challenges from fresh perspectives across the food and drink ecosystem.

Champions of Change, an awards initiative that launched in 2021 as part of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants overall programme, will also continue in 2022, highlighting a small number of unsung heroes who are creating positive change and driving meaningful action. Champions of Change will continue to provide a substantial monetary donation to each of the recipients’ causes, which all support long-term progress in the restaurant and food sphere, whether through helping others, developing inspirational blueprints or creating a healthier planet.

2022 will see further additions to 50 Best Discovery, an in-depth collection of city guides for restaurants and bars, which operates as an extension of the prestigious 50 Best rankings globally. Nearly 600 new venues were added in August 2021, bringing the number of establishments on the platform to a staggering 2,000, with 81 global countries included. Additional entries are slated to be added in the new year, casting a wider floodlight on the best restaurants and bars across the world.

As it reflects on the last year gone and looks ahead to these upcoming launches and initiatives, 50 Best sets out its Hope for Hospitality:

Our Hope for Hospitality is to acknowledge those recent challenges, to take onboard the lessons we have learned, and to build on the work 50 Best and its partners have been doing to support and benefit the wider hospitality community. To push ourselves to keep doing better and to think more creatively and more inclusively. To cast a critical eye on our practices, our perceptions and our assumptions. To pay homage to and celebrate the people that comprise our resilient and talented industry, whether they’re in the spotlight or in the background, in a major city or a small rural town, part of a major operation or a small independent unit. Our Hope for Hospitality is to improve and evolve, knowing there will always be challenges along the way, but also knowing that we have the tools and the passion to make meaningful change in our community, and help create a more open-minded and inclusive world.