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World's 50 Best Restaurants UK Chair Richard Vines interview

richardvinesTaking over from Jay Rayner as this year's Head of the UK panel for the World's 50 Best list is Richard Vines - Bloomberg's food critic and all round well-connected London foodie. Hot Dinners sat down with him the day before the 2012 list was announced to hear more about the inner workings of the incredibly influential restaurant awards.

What exactly does the head of the UK committee do?

There are 30 members on each panel and the head of the UK panel chooses the panel members, in consultation with the magazine. Ten panel members are rotated each year so my main involvement was deciding who went on the panel... and who went off.

So you have the power?

Not that much actually. There are a lot of panels around the world so what little power I have is quite diluted. People vote individually. The panel doesn't get together. In fact we're not allowed to collaborate with each other to decide who should win and who shouldn't. So I've no idea who the other panel members voted for and no idea of the results overall.

When you visit a restuarant what are you looking for? It seems from the list that it's a celebration of contemporary gastonomy...

It does look to be that progressive restaurants are rewarded, but that's not how we have to vote. I can vote for anywhere I want. There's no person at the centre deciding what the list should look like, it's the votes of hundreds of people around the world. It's not setting out to reflect modernity.

There are anomolies - I think four years ago there were no Asian restaurants on the list. And last year there were a few. Each year the organisers try to improve the system so you end up with a better list. If you look at the first year of results, the Ivy was very high and Gordon Ramsay - it reflected the fact that it was a British-based list. But now although the awards happen in London the panel is very international.

How are the votes cast? How many do you get?

You vote for seven restaurants. It has to be four within your region and three overseas. My region is UK and Ireland. You have to have eaten at the restaurant within 18 months and obviously have no business relationship with the restaurant. I voted for four in the UK and Ireland and three outside. What we look for in panellists are people who do travel and go to restaurants. There can be people who are brilliant on food, but that's no use unless they're travelling the world and eating in other restaurants.

Is it like the Oscars - who knows what in advance?

There's absolute secrecy. I had a London chef, quite a prominent one, come up about a month ago asking me to tell him whether or not he was in the top 100 or not. I said I had no idea and I don't know if he believed me. But I still don't know who's on and who's off. The panellists only know as it's being announced. Today we're told who's in the Top 100 but not told in what order they go and we're not allowed to disclose who's in the Top 100. So we'll be there tomorrow night hearing the countdown and learning at the same time as everyone else.

I thought I'd know as Chairman of the UK panel, I thought I'd get a whisper, but no.

It does make for an exciting weekend in London with all the chefs in town.

47 of the top 50 restaurants from the 2011 list are coming. It's an amazing turnout of chefs that they're expecting. Thomas Keller, Daniel Boulud, Rene Redzepi - even Ferran Adria's coming. If people say it's a silly list or criticise it, well you've just got to look at the chefs who come and associate themselves with it. You can think of great food events like Madrid Fusion or the James Beard awards in the US and so on but I can't think of any annual gathering of chefs that attracts this kind of crowd.

And of course winning can have a dramatic effect on a chef's life (and livelihood)

[Rene] told me the first year he won that on the first day after the results he could have filled the restaurant for 15 or 16 years just on that one day's applications. It's extrordinary the impact the list has and I'm so excited to be involved.

The World's 50 Best Restaurant List for 2012 is announced from 9pm on Monday 30th April. Follow us on Twitter at @hotdinners to hear the results as they're announced and make sure you're signed up for our newsletter which will have all the news from the event in your in-box first thing on Tuesday morning.

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