Japanese-Peruvian fusion earns Peru's Maido top spot on 2025 World's 50 Best Restaurants
PARIS, June 20 — Maido, a restaurant in Peru founded by chef Mitsuharu 'Micha' Tsumura, was on Thursday named the best eatery in the world for 2025 by the influential but controversial World's 50 Best Restaurants list.
Founded 16 years ago, Maido features a Japanese-Peruvian fusion menu, and lunchtime diners in the sleek Lima dining room were ecstatic about the win, shouting 'Maido, Maido!'
'The fusion of flavours at Maido is spectacular,' Valentina Mora, 33, told AFP.
Restaurants from three continents made the podium of the World's 50 Best, which was launched by a British press group to compete with France's Michelin red guides.
Asador Etxebarri — which offers Basque cooking in Atxondo, Spain — won second place and Quintonil in Mexico City was third.
Maxime Frederic, at the helm of the Cheval Blanc Paris pastry shop and head pastry chef at Plenitude, was named Best Pastry Chef.
The 50 Best award has been presented since 2002 by media group William Reed, based on reviews by one thousand 'independent experts' such as chefs, specialist journalists and restaurant owners.
The list has been criticised above all by French chefs, who accuse it of being clubby and opaque, but it is generally considered to be ahead of the Michelin guide in identifying the latest food trends.
Its detractors — French, but also Japanese and American — launched The List in 2015, a ranking of 1,000 restaurants across the world that uses an algorithm to aggregate and analyse data from more than 400 international sources. — AFP
Picture of the facade of the Maido high-cuisine restaurant in Lima, taken on June 19, 2025. — AFP pic
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Malay Mail
6 hours ago
- Malay Mail
Japanese-Peruvian fusion earns Peru's Maido top spot on 2025 World's 50 Best Restaurants
PARIS, June 20 — Maido, a restaurant in Peru founded by chef Mitsuharu 'Micha' Tsumura, was on Thursday named the best eatery in the world for 2025 by the influential but controversial World's 50 Best Restaurants list. Founded 16 years ago, Maido features a Japanese-Peruvian fusion menu, and lunchtime diners in the sleek Lima dining room were ecstatic about the win, shouting 'Maido, Maido!' 'The fusion of flavours at Maido is spectacular,' Valentina Mora, 33, told AFP. Restaurants from three continents made the podium of the World's 50 Best, which was launched by a British press group to compete with France's Michelin red guides. Asador Etxebarri — which offers Basque cooking in Atxondo, Spain — won second place and Quintonil in Mexico City was third. Maxime Frederic, at the helm of the Cheval Blanc Paris pastry shop and head pastry chef at Plenitude, was named Best Pastry Chef. The 50 Best award has been presented since 2002 by media group William Reed, based on reviews by one thousand 'independent experts' such as chefs, specialist journalists and restaurant owners. The list has been criticised above all by French chefs, who accuse it of being clubby and opaque, but it is generally considered to be ahead of the Michelin guide in identifying the latest food trends. Its detractors — French, but also Japanese and American — launched The List in 2015, a ranking of 1,000 restaurants across the world that uses an algorithm to aggregate and analyse data from more than 400 international sources. — AFP Picture of the facade of the Maido high-cuisine restaurant in Lima, taken on June 19, 2025. — AFP pic
Malay Mail
3 days ago
- Malay Mail
El Dorado's residents trade gold for groceries as mining remains lifeline
EL DORADO, June 18 — In the Venezuelan mining community of El Dorado, the majority of residents carry around gold instead of cards or cash to pay for groceries. They live in a town named after the mythical City of Gold and untold riches — but most of them are poor. Merchants use scales to carefully weigh the flecks people guard in plastic pill bottles or wrapped in pieces of paper, and market goods are priced in weight of gold. For 0.02 grams, you can get a small packet of maize meal, for one gram a pre-packaged bag of groceries that includes flour, pasta, oil, margarine, ketchup and milk powder. A gram of gold can purchase between $85 and $100 worth of goods, but takes hours of back-breaking work to amass. If you're in luck. 'Gold is a blessing given to us so we can buy what we want, but you have to work hard,' 48-year-old Jose Tobias Tranquini told AFP in the town of 5,000 residents mostly employed in mining—legal and illegal. 'One day at the mine you might find nothing; there are lucky people who have gotten up to a kilo (2.2 pounds), but... I haven't had that kind of blessing. I've only gotten a little bit,' said Tranquini. El Dorado's residents have limited access to banking services. They could sell their gold at one of the dozens of dealers that dot the streets, but most prefer not to. Gold—unlike the battered Venezuelan currency that has lost 50 percent of its value this year—does not depreciate. A man pays at a store with grams of gold, which is the main means of payment in the mining town of El Dorado. — AFP pic No gold, no life El Dorado arose as a military fort as Britain and Venezuela squared off in 1895 over the mineral- and oil-rich region of Essequibo now at the center of an increasingly heated territorial dispute with Guyana, which has administered it for decades. The oldest inhabitants of the town remember that when it rained, particles of gold emerged from the town's clay streets. Nowadays, the streets are tarred, though potholed, and the population rely for transport mainly on motorcycles that zoom noisily to and fro. Hilda Carrero, a 73-year-old merchant, arrived in Eldorado 50 years go in the midst of a gold rush. The town, she recalls, was just 'jungle and snakes... It was ugly.' Carrero sells cans of water for 0.03 grams of gold apiece — about US$1.50 — but business, like mining hauls, is erratic. Some days she sells nothing. 'If I don't have gold I have no life,' Carrero sighed. It can be hard to make a living in a place where abundant reserves of gold, diamonds, iron, bauxite, quartz and coltan have attracted organized crime and guerrilla groups that mine illegally, and sow violence. Extortion of small business owners is rife, and 217 people were killed in the four years to 2020 in clashes between rival criminal gangs. Environmentalists also denounce an 'ecocide' in the heavily-exploited area, and mine collapses have claimed dozens of lives. Hazardous work Around El Dorado, there are numerous camps processing the gold-laden sand that miners dig up daily. In tall sheds with zinc roofs, mountains of sand are milled in machines that work with modified car engines, then washed in water and toxic mercury to separate the gold from other metals. Tiny particles almost imperceptible to the naked eye are trapped in a green mat which is shaken out to collect them. The granules are finally heated with a blowtorch to remove impurities before the gold can be traded or sold. It is hard work, and hazardous. 'The danger of this is the smoke' produced by the mercury burning off, a mill owner explained while smoking a cigarette. A family of five working at a mine visited by AFP spent four hours that day processing a ton of sand. For their efforts: one gram of gold. 'We'll use it to buy food and whatever is needed at the mill,' a worker who asked not to be named told AFP as he cupped a tiny grain of gold in coarse hands. It was a good day. — AFP
The Star
5 days ago
- The Star
LUNAS strengthens strategic collaboration with STM Turkiye
Anwar (centre) witnessing the MoU exchange held in conjunction with the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition 2025 (LIMA '25), marking a significant milestone in strategic collaboration. LANGKAWI: Lumut Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd (LUNAS) continues to make strides as a key player in the nation's defence industry with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Turkiye's leading defence engineering company, Savunma Teknolojileri Muhendislik ve Ticaret A.S. (STM). This strategic collaboration marks a new chapter in the modernisation of naval military platforms and the development of next-generation vessels. LUNAS chief executive officer Azhar Jumaat said the collaboration not only strengthens the company's technical capabilities but also elevates Malaysia's profile in the global maritime defence arena. 'This partnership reinforces the country's efforts to enhance maritime defence resilience through technology transfer, local capability development and innovation with trusted global partners. 'It positions LUNAS as a more competitive government-linked strategic asset while also supporting the Malaysia Madani aspirations, which focus on modernisation, competitiveness and global engagement in national industrial development.' he said. The MoU exchange was held in conjunction with the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition 2025 (Lima '25) and was witnessed by the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Also present were Defence Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin, Turkiye's Defence Industry Agency president Haluk Gorgun, Azhar and STM chief executive officer Ozgur Guleryuz. As a symbolic gesture of the Madani Government's support for the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) programme, Anwar placed the Jalur Gemilang on a five-meter Bryks model replica displayed at the LUNAS booth. LUNAS, which is wholly owned by the Minister of Finance (Incorporated), is now actively expanding into new sectors including commercial shipbuilding and repair, heavy engineering, and ship recycling, marking its transformation into a diversified maritime and engineering powerhouse.
