13: A Post-Pandemic Interview with Klaus Thomsen and More Thoughts on More Awards

The co-founder of Coffee Collective talks about fear, relearning Adobe, and why it's worth sacrificing profits, and I hold forth yet again on 50 Best

Hi there, 

Another week, another awards ceremony. As you may have heard, on Tuesday night the World’s 50 Best Restaurants ceremony took place and, for the first time ever, two restaurants in the same city took the top two slots: Noma at #1 and Geranium at #2. 

I posted congratulations to them on Bord’s instagram that night, and quickly received some messages wondering why I wasn’t being more critical. If you know my work outside of Bord, the congratulations might have seemed hypocritical to you; over the past decade I’ve written many, many stories on the lobbying, lack of transparency, and warping influence that the list has had on the industry. Most recently, I revealed how, with its 2019 rule requiring restaurants who win the top position to retire from competition, the organization ceded to the demands of some chefs who felt diminished by their drop down the list. At this point, even I am tired of hearing me drone on about this stuff; I can’t imagine what it’s like for the rest of yo…