Star chefs from around the world participate. What is "The Grand Gelina's Shuffle"?

In December 2019, the drama “Grand Maison Tokyo” starring Takuya Kimura came to an end amid positive reviews. The Grand Gelinaz Shuffle, a one-night-only food event that excited gastronomists around the world, was held in cities around the world, including Tokyo. What's happening at the cutting edge of gastronomy right now? First, I would like to explain about the event "The Grand Jelina's Shuffle" (hereinafter referred to as "Jelina's"), which was held simultaneously all over the world on December 12, 2019.

The outline of the event is as follows. First, 38 chefs from 17 restaurants in 138 countries (148 time zones) around the world will each create eight recipes. Next, 700 hours before the event, each chef will receive a randomly selected recipe. Each chef who received the recipe recreated the dish based only on the text and photos, without revealing the name of the recipe creator or the country or region, adding his or her own interpretation to the dish overnight on the day of the event. It is a fantastic thing that is served to guests as a limited menu.

Just thinking about it, I have many questions like, ``If a mid-summer recipe arrives in winter in Japan from the southern hemisphere, what do we do with the ingredients?'' ``How do we procure things like kangaroo from Australia or piranha from the Amazon?'' I don't think it's very possible. Let's take a look at the reasons why such an event was planned and became such a huge success worldwide.

"Michelin Guide", "World's 50 Best Restaurants", "LA LISTE". Three major information sources that guide and rate restaurants from a unique perspective

First, let's take a look at the current trends in global gastronomy. Foodies, who travel around the world and focus on fine dining such as Grand Maison Tokyo, utilize the Michelin Guide, World's 50 Best Restaurants, LA LISTE, etc. list).

Of course, there is a huge amount of gourmet information in Japan, such as websites such as ``Tabelog'', ``Gault et Millau'' from France, and ``Tokyo's best restaurants'' from Japan that I personally highly recommend. ing. Overseas, there are too many famous guidebooks from France and Italy, as well as regional rankings such as Northern Europe, North America, and Oceania, but I would like to focus on the three mentioned above.

Japan's most famous ``Michelin Guide'' is a full-time employee of ``Michelin Tire,'' and its highly trained inspectors conduct surveys and evaluate cuisine in each country and region using globally standardized evaluation standards. The Michelin Guide, which has a history of more than 100 years, has created a new value called ``gastronomy tourism,'' which focuses on the places you travel to and introduces the charms of local food. .

On the other hand, the ``World's 50 Best Restaurants'' is a poll of more than 1000 male and female voters, including chefs, food writers, industry officials, and influencers, who vote freely at their own discretion, so trends are more likely to be reflected. .

"La Liste", which appeared in 2015 with the approval of the French government, is a collection of information such as more than 600 guides, ratings, and reviews from around the world, and is analyzed by computer based on a unique algorithm. What's new is that it doesn't rely on the senses of those who have been exposed to it.

Foodies around the world use these three information sources to suit their purposes and tastes as they travel around the world.

If you have a destination in mind, the Michelin Guide is convenient. It contains a wide range of information that will help you explore the area, from three-star restaurants to budget-friendly Bib Gourmands.

In the ``World's 50 Best Restaurants'' list, restaurants that are proactive about new initiatives, such as serving innovative dishes, are more likely to be evaluated. What is popular now? Where are the local trends heading? It's fun just looking at the list to get a glimpse of the distribution of gastronomy around the world. It is also a hot topic that the Asian version of the ``Asia's 50 Best Restaurants'' award will be held in Saga Prefecture in March 2020.

``La List'' allows you to instantly search 1000 top restaurants and 5000 recommended restaurants around the world using the app. It covers information on countries and regions where ``Michelin Guides'' have not been published or which have not received attention in terms of gastronomy, so I would like to keep an eye on future developments.

The global food scene changed by the ``World's 50 Best Restaurants''

Lately, the world's 50 best restaurants have been leading the global food scene.

The ``World's 50 Best Restaurants'' list is not limited to any country or region, nor is there any classification of cuisine, but instead the restaurants with the most votes are listed in order from top to bottom. In the latest ranking released in June 2019, restaurants from 6 countries made it to the top 50. Chefs from all over the world gather together to participate in the award that announces this ranking (held in Singapore in 26).

A number of events will be held before and after the awards, including talk sessions and panel discussions featuring world-famous chefs, and parties where participants can freely chat. In other words, a miracle that could never have happened before will occur, such as a young Asian chef meeting and deepening ties with a top chef on the other side of the world.

Thanks to the development of social media, chefs are now able to communicate directly and spontaneously organize events among like-minded individuals. If you're a restaurant fan, you're probably familiar with the movement of ``collaboration events'' where multiple chefs get together. A few years ago, it was almost unheard of for a famous three-star chef from Europe to show up at a small, privately owned restaurant in Tokyo without the invitation of a major hotel or restaurant company.

While chefs deepened their communication, "eaters" such as foodies, influencers, and food writers who love to eat while traveling also began to connect across borders. Based on this trend, the food event ``Gelina's'' introduced at the beginning, which involves food lovers, has emerged.

From a “theatrical style” where the chef is the main character, to a “festival” where diners also participate

Looking back, I think it was around the time of the hit cooking variety show ``Iron Chef'' (Fuji TV) that fans began to attach more attention to individual chefs than to restaurant names in Japan. Words like "star chef" and "celebrity chef" have become established, and "eating at a popular restaurant" and "meeting a famous chef" have equal value. Open kitchens and counters where the chefs can be seen, rather than separating the kitchen from the seating area, have also become popular. However, in this case, the protagonist was the star chef, and the eater was the audience.

"Jelina's", which I introduced at the beginning, is an event that transcends these boundaries. What happened to chefs and diners this night in Tokyo and other cities around the world? In the second part, we will mainly introduce the event at "Alter Ego" in Jimbocho, Tokyo.

→Continue to learn about trends in gastronomy around the world (Part 2)

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