PM praises chef Sá Pessoa for entry on list of world’s 100 best chefs
António Costa celebrated on Twitter the entry of chef Henrique Sá Pessoa in the list of the hundred best chefs in the world.
The Prime Minister, António Costa, on Thursday, celebrated the entry of chef Henrique Sá Pessoa in the list of the hundred best chefs in the world, highlighting his “art and technique, inspired by traditional Portuguese cuisine”.
António Costa wrote on Twitter and also referred to José Avilez, who was already on the list, saying that the presence of both chefs on the list is a “pride for Portugal”.
Henrique Sá Pessoa (Alma restaurant, Lisbon) was on Wednesday ranked in 38th place, the highest entry in the table of the 100 distinguished in “The Best Chef Awards” list, whose first place went to the Spaniard Dabiz Muñoz (DiverXo, three Michelin stars, Madrid).
In addition to Sá Pessoa, who enters this ‘ranking’ for the first time and simultaneously wins the “best starter” award, José Avillez (Belcanto, two Michelin stars, Lisbon, and about a dozen other restaurants in Portugal and Dubai) is the other Portuguese chef on the list, this time in 44th place, up from 70th place in the 2020 edition.
The awards were announced on Wednesday night at a ceremony in Amsterdam, attended by Sá Pessoa, chef of Alma (two Michelin stars) and other restaurants in Portugal, as well as one in Macau.
Speaking to Lusa, the chef said this was “one of the highest moments” of his career.
“It is undoubtedly a very special award,” he said.
Sá Pessoa also considered that these awards are also positive for Portugal, with several ‘chefs’ with restaurants in the country among the top 50.
The distinction, created by Italian gastronomy expert Cristian Gadau and Polish neuroscientist Joanna Slusarczyk, aims to highlight the chef rather than the restaurant, and the selection of nominees is made by “independent partners” of the platform.
In this year’s edition, Dabiz Muñoz won the Best Chef title, followed by Björn Frantzén (Frantzén, Stockholm, three stars), again in second place after being the winner in 2019.
In third position was Andoni Luis Aduriz (Mugaritz, Guipuzcoa, Spain, two stars).
The list contains last year’s honourees and one hundred ‘new faces’. The voting is 70% by peers – a way for chefs to pay tribute to each other – and the remaining 30% results from votes by “a selection of journalists, critics, ‘bloggers’, photographers and other personalities with a special knowledge of haute cuisine”, according to the promoters.
