By Akanksha Dean
Indian Chef Deepanker Khosla, Chef-owner Haoma-Bangkok, Thailand does India proud by winning the award as a Champion of Change along with Chef Kurt Evans from Philadelphia and Viviana Varese from Milan as part of the upcoming The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2021 award series, given in association with S. Pellegrino& Acqua Panna, formulas an important backbone in the association’s evolving ‘50 Best for Recovery’ lead!
Champions of Change recognizes and celebrates personae who have used this period as a facilitator to drive momentous performance in their applicable communities. The first of 2021’s winners are Kurt Evans – co-founder of Down North Pizza, a ‘mission-led for-profit restaurant’ in Philadelphia, US, which solely engages previously enslaved individuals while offering gastronomic livelihood prospects with a fair wage. Evans will use the Champions of Change donation to benefit fund his End Mass Imprisonment dinner series as well as to foster the effort that Everybody Eats Philly is resounding out to stipulate free meals and requisites to individuals in need.
Viviana Varese, who received a Michelin star for her Milan-based restaurant Viva is becoming one of the very few women in Italy to do so. Varese will use the Champions of Change donation to funding this novel retail project, which will offer much-needed service openings to vulnerable women.
When the pandemic hit Thailand, Deepanker Khosla, an Indian chef based in Bangkok, turned his restaurant Haoma – which is operated mostly by immigrants – into a soup kitchen for out-of-job Bangkok residents. He extended funds to make meals with his movement, No One Hungry, where his team made free meals for the homeless and were able to get food for themselves and their families as well. Khosla will use the Champions of Change donation to construct and operate a complete kitchen for the No One Hungry project, offering meals to thousands of people in need.
Stefano Bolognese, Sanpellegrino International Business Unit Director, says: “Talent and human capital are the authentic heritage of every restaurant – assets that are at high risk of dispersion when uncertainty prevails, and that therefore need to be encouraged and promoted. For this reason, we are proud to support the new Champions of Change initiative: the awards allow us to celebrate the local heroes who, with their skills and creativity, are positively contributing to the evolution of the gastronomy industry, offering a further opportunity for reflection on its strategic role within society.”
Champions of Change is one of the numerous superior awards which will be broadcast between now and September, as a slice of the lead-up to the event programme for The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2021. These personalities have used current tests as a stimulus for encouraging accomplishment and continuing evolution, whether they are serving others, enlightening the epicurean sector or crafting a stronger planet. The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2021 awards, sponsored by S. Pellegrino & Acqua Panna, will be presented in the metropolis of Antwerp in Flanders – the Flemish-speaking northern region of Belgium – on Tuesday, 5th October.
