Basque Culinary World Prize

The Basque Culinary World Prize is an annual global award co-founded by the Basque Government and the Basque Culinary Center in 2016. A prize of €100,000 is granted to a chef whose work has a wider socio-economic benefit.[1] The winner is to use the prize to devote to a project of their choice that demonstrates the wider role of gastronomy in society.[2]

The award is open to anyone with a professional background in cooking– regardless of their culinary culture or nationality– and whose work has made an impact in the fields such as innovation, technology, education, the environment, health, the food industry and social and economic development.[3]

History

The prize was co-founded by the Basque Government under the Euskadi-Basque Country Strategy and Basque Culinary Center (BCC), a higher education institution entirely dedicated to developing the economic and social potential of gastronomy.[4]

Previous winners

The first Basque Culinary World Prize was awarded in 2016 to María Fernanda Di Giaccobe from Venezuela, for her Cacao de Origen initiative – a network involving education, entrepreneurship, research and development around cocoa as a source of identity, culture and economic wealth in Venezuela. Through this network, the chef brought opportunities to financially vulnerable women, building capacities and empowering them; allowing them to become micro-entrepreneurs in the chocolate industry.[5]

In 2017, the prize was awarded to Colombian chef Leonor Espinosa, for her Funleo project – a foundation which helps indigenous and afro-Colombian communities to identify, defend, and promote gastronomic traditions as a way of driving social and economic change.[4]

The 2018 prize was awarded to Scottish-Australian chef Jock Zonfrillo, for his work in connecting indigenous communities in Australia to the rest of society by creating a market for their culinary heritage. His Orana Foundation works to preserve the sophisticated cooking knowledge and practice of indigenous Australians and promote the significance of these practices to a wider Australian audience.[6] The most recent prize, in 2019, was awarded to US chef Anthony Myint, who runs the Zero Foodprint and Perennial Farming Initiative.[7][8] The ventures explore the cross-section between restaurants and the environment, by advising food businesses on viable options to reduce their carbon footprint, and even go carbon neutral. He has worked with the State of California on the Restore California programme, which arms suppliers and consumers with transparent information on the environmental footprint of restaurants so they can make better-informed decisions. All restaurants on the list can either be carbon neutral or support local farmers to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.[9]

YEAR COUNTRY NAME INITIATIVE REF.
2016 Venezuela María Fernanda Di Giaccobe Cacao de Origen [5]
2017 Colombia Leonor Espinosa Funleo [10]
2018 United Kingdom (Scotland) Jock Zonfrillo Orana Foundation [11]
2019 United States Anthony Myint Zero Foodprint and Perennial Farming Initiative .[7][8]

References
  1. Coughlan, Sean (25 April 2018). "Changing the world, one dinner at a time" – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  2. "Nominations open for Basque Culinary World Prize to be judged by Heston Blumenthal". uk.news.yahoo.com.
  3. "UK's Doug McMaster among finalists for Basque..." The Caterer. 20 June 2019.
  4. Barth, Jill. "The Transformative Power Of Gastronomy: The Basque Culinary World Prize". Forbes.
  5. "How A Venezuelan Chef Is Teaching Women To Make Chocolate And Money". NPR.org.
  6. Barth, Jill. "Winner Of Basque Culinary World Prize: 'Give Back More Than You Take'". Forbes.
  7. "Zero Foodprint". Zero Foodprint.
  8. "The Perennial Farming Initiative". The Perennial Farming Initiative.
  9. Barth, Jill. "2019 Basque Culinary World Prize Winner Anthony Myint Uses Cooking For Climate Solutions". Forbes.
  10. "FUNLEO – Fundación Leo Espinosa".
  11. "The Orana Foundation".
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