50 Best: Italy’s four of a kind sponsors

Every edition of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants offers a chance to present the sponsors, a total of 15 of which 4 are Italian: Acqua Panna S.Pellegrino, Ferrari, new entry, Grana Padano and Lavazza. For some ten years Acqua Panna S.Pellegrino has been the title sponsor and this is why many people still believe it organised the event. It is now the official water of the final ceremony. The one that Massimo Bottura won in New York on the 13th of June. It is thanks to the presence of the two Italian waters that foodies scattered around the world can watch the ceremony in streaming. There’s more: it is also the main sponsor in the two continental events, the 50Best South America and Asia. «This helps us reaffirm our role as ambassadors of taste and fine dining, as we share the same love for food, beauty, creativity and attention to detail as the most important chef community in the world».

In alphabetic order, for the first time we drank Italian wines thanks to Ferrari from Trento. The Lunelli family was represented in Manhattan by cousins Camilla and Matteo, that is to say the communication manager and the president. They unseated the French and on the night of Bottura’s triumph were pouring and smiling at full blast.

An Italian Metodo classico and no longer champagne. This is rarely the case. Yet when it happens we should be proud, regardless of which winery signs the deal. Besides, the gems are two. The Lunelli family chose to invest in the Art of Hospitality Award as well, which went to Will Guidara and Daniel Humm’s Eleven Madison Park, right in New York. A lot is being said about investing in the dining room. The 50 Best themselves reward the first 50 restaurants in the world, not the 50 best chefs, yet we always end up personalising the list in favour of the latter. Those who shed light on the dining room are more than welcome. After all it is here that we sit as guests and we should pay much attention to this.

While Ferrari has just begun, consortium Grana Padano, partner and first official cheese sponsor in the Fifty Best has gone a long way. Elisabetta Serraiotto says «The journey has lasted almost 20 years, thanks to the collaboration with the then unknown (in Italy) Bastianich family, with Lidia and her son Joe, but also thanks to the fact we were among the first to collaborate with Identità Golose back in 2004.

All this with the same unchangeable spirit and commitment, supporting chefs devoted to conveying extraordinary Italian cuisine around the world, also thanks to its marvellous products. Starting from our own».

The 50 Best as a natural evolution of things. Rejoicing for Bottura’s first place and for the other Italians at the top, Crippa, Alajmo and Scabin, as well as Romito and Bombana in the top 100. Even the prize for the best female chef to Dominique Crenn, a French who moved to San Francisco, California. «The international approach of the World's 50 Best and the award’s criteria perfectly represent the values of our brand, as it shares its capacity to understand and condense trends and values that are essential to those who work daily in the kitchen with professionalism, commitment and dedication beyond appearances. The beauty and the good».

Yet probably no sponsor has such a long, constant and committed militancy in the great contemporary cuisine as Lavazza. All this after Ferran Adrià. Sara Peirone in Torino always reminds me of this: «Lavazza began to collaborate with Adrià and Bulli, and then Carlo Cracco and Massimo Bottura at the beginning of their respective careers. It is because we have shared experiences and dreams that we are now proud and happy for the prestigious award received by Massimo Bottura. We’re proud of his first place as best chef in the world in this edition of The 50 Best, an event of which we have been partners for 5 years. And one must also stress that among the 50 best there are now four Italians while there were 3 in 2015». Confirming Lavazza’s attention to novelties, they’re also sponsoring the Highest Climber award. This year it goes to Maido in Lima, with chef Mitsuharu Tsumura, from 44th to 13th place.