PARIS, Nov 26 — Tastemakers at French restaurant guide Le Fooding have revealed the winners of their inaugural “Best New Bistros” awards programme, created to showcase the best “cheap and cheerful” dining destinations in cities like Paris, London, New York and Mexico City.

After opening the awards to public voting for nearly two months, the results are in:

Best bistro in Paris: Le Maquis

London: Tayer + Elementary AND Mao Chow

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New York: Saint Julivert Fisherie

Mexico City: Expendio de Maiz sin Nombre

The winners were chosen from a long list of nominees based on the recommendations of local experts in each city.

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To be eligible, all bistros had to have opened within the last 12-18 months — a strategy meant to highlight new, up and coming addresses instead of rewarding the usual suspects, organisers say.

“These are places that are lively, intimate and accessible to the general public,” said Le Fooding founder Alexandre Cammas in an interview.

“There's a real neighbourhood feel at these restaurants. Chefs are in the kitchen and are for the most part younger.”

As newly opened bistros, they tend to be smaller, more informal spaces where people may eat with their hands and decor is stripped of all pretense: Tablecloths not required.

“It's these types of restaurants — where the food and cuisine are more spontaneous, dynamic and more affordable — that shake up the local restaurant scene with creativity and audacity,” he said.

New York winner Saint Julivert Fisherie, for instance, is a small tapas-style seafood restaurant where diners sit elbow to elbow at the bar sharing small plates like pickled wild shrimp with sweet onion and crispy tuna bake with tomato, turmeric and curry leaf.

It seems an exception was made for London, where both Mao Chow, a vegan Chinese restaurant, and Tayer + Elementary, opened by award-winning mixologist Alex Kratena, share the title of best new bistro.

That could be because of the four cities, Cammas said he was especially impressed with London's food offerings over 2019, calling the food scene particularly innovative, fun and creative.

Cammas holds a soft spot for the British capital, as it was a visit to London nearly 20 years ago that inspired the Frenchman to launch Le Fooding. There he experienced an entirely new food culture, so different from the Parisian scene which excelled at fine dining, but offered nothing more than mediocre if not dismal cuisine for everyone else, he said.

Le Fooding was launched as an antithesis to the Michelin guide, the bible of haute gastronomy, and was meant to recognise smaller, more informal dining addresses doing creative things with food throughout Paris.

Ironically, in 2017 Michelin acquired a 40 per cent stake in Le Fooding.

Meanwhile, though London, Paris and New York may be predictable choices for an international food awards program, Cammas says Mexico City was both an editorial and marketing choice.

The city is a target market for Best New Bistros partner Mastercard's Priceless Cities programme which offers exclusive travel experiences for cardholders. In the food world, Cammas said the city is also one of the most dynamic culinary destinations today. — AFP-Relaxnews