Celebrating the Best of Asia’s Restaurants with Diners Club International

Maureen
Maureen
February 26, 2013

Asia’s 50 Best Restaurant announced the winners of the first ever list at a glittering awards ceremony yesterday at Marina Bay Sands. The list is created from The Diners Club International World’s 50 Best Restaurants Academy, an influential group of over 900 international leaders in the restaurant industry, each selected for their expert opinion of the international restaurant scene.

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Over 400 invited guests attended the event including many of the top 50 nominated chefs, the media, VIP guests as well as sponsors.

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Here’s the Diners Club International lounge. Diners Club International (DCI) is the Official Financial Services Sponsor of the new restaurant awards, Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants (ABR).

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We had some canapés prepared by Marina Bay Sands. This includes Crispy Oyster Cromisque with unique Warm Bloody Mary Shooter.

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Tender Kabayaki Glazed Kurobuta with Kombu Flakes.

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Some chocolate pralines for you?

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Back at Diners Club area, President of Diners Club International,
Mr. Eduardo Tobon, doing an interview with Mr. William Drew, editor of Restaurant Magazine.

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Here’s another shot of Mr. Eduardo with Les Amis Group Director, Mr Raymond Lim.

Les Amis group has started from Les Amis restaurant founded in 1994. At that period, French restaurant was only available in hotels and it was the first independent French cuisine restaurant. Today group is owned by 3 owners and expanded to 25 branches underneath. Mr. Desmond Lim is the chairman as well as one of the owners.

French cuisine “Les Amis” is obtaining high recognition in global standard. It was awarded in 2011 San Pellegrino List of World’s Best 55th. So in this year’s Asia’s 50 Best Restaurant, do you think Les Amis will be in the list?

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Shortly after the reception, all of us gathered in the ballroom to witness the announcement of results; I was so nervous and hoping that all my favourite restaurants enter the Top 50 list. Narisawa has secured the top spot at the inaugural Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants award, and has been named The S.Pellegrino Best Restaurant in Asia. The restaurant has also been named The S.Pellegrino Best Restaurant in Japan.

If you are wondering what constitutes “best”, there is no pre-determined check-list of criteria; for example an interesting experience in a simple establishment, where exceptional innovation was discovered, could be judged better than a more opulent meal from a widely feted restaurant team. The results are a simple computation of votes.

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The full results can be obtained from the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants website but here are some of the highlights:

– Janice Wong has won Asia’s Best Pastry Chef due to her creation and delivery of a multi-sensory experience for her desserts combined with her experimentation with sweet and savoury flavours.

– Les Amis has won the 14th place. Being one of the forerunners of fine dining in Singapore, Les Amis is still going strong in the trusted hands of maître d’ Christian Wild. This classic restaurant has an elegant neighbourhood feel that strikes the right balance between meticulous service and friendliness – the sort of restaurant that every foodie wishes they could have at the end of their road.

– Gunther’s is awarded 43rd place. Located in a converted shophouse, the vast tray of impressive raw ingredients, including live seafood, shown to each diner at the start of the meal and testament that produce here remains king.

– Voted as “One to Watch” restaurant, JAAN came in 22nd. The view from the 70th floor is jaw-dropping, matched only by the wittily presented and immaculately executed dishes emerging from the kitchen of Chef de Cuisine Julien Royer. ‘One To Watch’ is awarded to an establishment within the inaugural Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list that the organisers believe has made a significant impact in a relatively short period and that has the potential to rise further up the rankings.

– Restaurant Andre came in 5th and Imperial Treasure came in 49th.

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Congratulations!

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After the award ended, we went to the Diners Club lounge. It was huge and so classy!

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Let’s start with some iberico ham.

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Seared-Brittany Se scallop tartar with Sea Urchin Espuma.

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Pan Seared Foie Gras, Crispy Rosemary, Cranberry Compote.

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My favourite for the night is Seared Snake River Beef, Fluer de Sel, Truffle Jus.

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Here’s the chef preparing the smoked salmon.

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There is always space for desserts!

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With the Diners Club International team.

It has been an honour to attend Asia’s 50 Best Restaurant under Diners Club International last evening. It is exciting to see so many creative chefs serving interesting dishes in the Aisa’s culinary scene and this program has certainly recognised their efforts. With 6 local restaurants in Asia’s Top 50 Best Restaurant list, I guess this is going to shape our plate for this year.

Asia is becoming a huge pie among the global culinary landscape with more east-meets-west content on our plates. I am so glad that all my favourite restaurants are in the list, now it’s time to visit them again!

Also, check out my guest blog post that will go live soon on Diners Club International BelieveBelong Blog!