An awards ceremony, seen from the outside, is a red carpet and a list. Seen from inside the industry, it is something else entirely: the only week of the year when several hundred kitchens that are redefining the craft come together in the same city and talk to one another.
That difference is what drives our decision. As a company present in more than 80 countries, we evaluate every invitation through the same three-question filter: Will the professional who uses our product be there — not the end consumer? Will there be real technical exchange, and not just a showcase? Will what is recognised here eventually find its way, two or three years from now, onto the menus of thousands of restaurants?
When all three answers are yes, we do not attend as guests. We show up as part of it. The World’s 50 Best Restaurants is one of those cases, and that is why we have been involved in the event for several editions — not simply attending.
From The World’s 50 Best to The 50
This year the organisation has refreshed its brand identity. What we have known until now as 50 Best is now called The 50, an umbrella that brings together all its rankings and awards under a single identity: restaurants, bars, hotels and vineyards.
The change is one of brand, not of substance. The 50 defines itself as an international media company connecting people with the world’s finest hospitality, and its method remains the same: gathering the opinions of thousands of independent experts to build rankings, foster community and publish specialist content. In the case of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, the vote belongs to an Academy made up of 1,120 independent experts from the industry and well-travelled gourmets from around the world.
For those of us who have worked with brand positioning for years, the move has a clear reading: consolidating under a single name a track record of more than two decades and an authority that is no longer limited to the restaurant world.
Our role: Official Ingredients Partner
We appear on the official list of partners for The World’s 50 Best Restaurants as Official Ingredients Partner, alongside companies such as S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna, Estrella Damm, Parmigiano Reggiano, illycaffè, or LATAM Airlines.
Being the ingredients partner of the most influential ranking in global fine dining is no accident of timing. It is the logical consequence of how this company was born: in 1967 as a family artisan biscuit and Catalan Christmas confectionery business, followed by the move into ice cream ingredients in the 1970s, the ice cream production line in the 1980s, and from the year 2000 onwards, the development of ingredients for gastronomy and pastry. Since then, everything we have done has been guided by a single goal: to support the chef in making the impossible possible, built on four working pillars — more texture, more flavour, less fat and less sugar.
The World’s Best Pastry Chef Award, sponsored by Sosa
Within the ceremony there is one recognition that is particularly close to our hearts: The World’s Best Pastry Chef Award, which we sponsor.
It is the award that distinguishes talent and excellence in the field of dessert and pastry within fine dining, and it is voted on by the same Academy that compiles the main list. Its recent roll of honour maps, by itself, the direction in which restaurant pastry is heading::
| Year | Winner |
|---|---|
| 2025 | Maxime Frédéric (Cheval Blanc Paris) |
| 2024 | Nina Métayer (Paris) |
| 2023 | Pía Salazar (Nuema, Quito) |
| 2022 | René Frank (Coda, Berlin) |
| 2021 | Will Goldfarb (Room4Dessert, Bali) |
| 2019 | Jessica Préalpato (Paris) |
| 2018 | Cédric Grolet (Paris) |
Before them, names like Dominique Ansel, Pierre Hermé, Albert Adrià, or Jordi Roca. It is, probably, the most international and least predictable list in contemporary pastry: in just three editions, it has recognized a chef from Quito, an independent Parisian pastry chef, and a Norman who works between high-end hotels and a neighborhood bakery.
That is exactly the kind of pastry we are interested in supporting. Not the kind that repeats formulas, but the kind that investigates, formulates and strips away the superfluous until flavour takes centre stage.
Next stop: Lima, November 4, 2026
The 2026 edition of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants will be held in Lima (Peru) on 4 November 2026, organised in collaboration with PromPerú. It will be the first time in the ranking’s history that the ceremony takes place in South America, after Lima replaced the originally announced host city.
he context could not be more eloquent: at the 2025 gala held in Turin, Maido (Lima) was crowned The World’s Best Restaurant, becoming the second Peruvian restaurant to reach number one in three years, after Central in 2023.
The ceremony will be the closing of a full week of activity in the city, with #50BestTalks, the Signature Sessions (collaborative dinners in which chefs from ranked restaurants cook alongside local chefs), the Chefs’ Feast, and the prior announcement of several special awards. The revelation of 1 to 50 will be broadcast live.
We will be there, once again. Because these days are not just a gala: they are the week of the year when the community that uses our ingredients gathers in one place, shares how it works and pushes us to keep learning.
See you in Lima.
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sosa@sosa.cat