At the beginning of June, a dozen of the world’s top chefs converged in Tokyo — but not to cook or to eat at the city’s temples of Japanese cuisine. Instead, they were in town for the international summit of the Basque Culinary Center (BCC) and the announcement of the prestigious Basque Culinary World Prize.
Founded in 2009 in the Spanish city of San Sebastian, one of the world’s capitals of dining, the BCC has a mission to educate and conduct research in the field of food, gastronomy and cooking. Each year, its international board — comprising chefs and food professionals from five continents, many of them with major accolades and multi-Michelin-star restaurants — convenes at a different location for closed-door talks and hands-on research trips.
This year’s event was hosted by chef Yoshihiro Narisawa, whose two-star restaurant in Tokyo’s Minami Aoyama neighborhood has remained at the forefront of modern gastronomy in the city for two decades now. He has been closely involved with the BCC since its early days and was originally due to welcome the summit in 2020, until the COVID-19 pandemic intervened.