In the latest pre-announced award from Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2023, Japanese chef and sustainability champion Shinobu Namae has been awarded the Icon Award – Asia 2023.
Voted for by the 300-plus anonymous members of Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants Academy, the accolade celebrates individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the food world worthy of global recognition and who use their platform to raise awareness and drive positive change.
Yokohama-born Namae’s passion lies in shaping a more conscious fine dining culture, both with his cuisine and with efforts beyond the kitchen. At L’Effervescence in Tokyo, which he calls his “hermitage in the city”, food waste is minimal, and the produce is organic, regional, and homegrown, embodying his passion to represent Japan’s terroir. The interiors incorporate tradition with earthen walls and mortar, and sources of electricity are sustainable, such as the use of firewood collected from forest thinning for cooking.
"I am very honoured to receive the Icon Award as part of Asia's 50 Best Restaurants 2023 and I hope that this award will raise awareness of the importance of health. Health starts from our own body and mind, our society and the environment that embraces us. They are all interconnected, so we should not ignore any of them. I believe that food is the best solution for all broken parts, not only because of its nutrition, but also because of its capacity to help us understand others. Post-Covid, I hope all separated worlds will be harmonised and healed via the power of food,” says the chef.
Namae’s brand of ethical cuisine goes beyond produce and presentation. He makes conscious choices in gastronomy and seeks to inspire others to follow, prioritising connections with nature, farmers, fishers, and hunters. He forages and free dives to document the health of marine ecosystems in Japan’s coastal waters and explores methods that reduce fine dining’s impact on climate change.
His efforts saw him receive an invitation to the United Nations (UN) Headquarters in New York to give a speech at the World Oceans Day conference in June last year on the importance of collective action to revitalise the oceans’ health. Namae also works closely with WWF Japan to reduce illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in Japan.
Namae is not classically trained in the culinary arts but is a former political studies student, who reembraced academia in 2021 to pursue a doctorate in Microeconomics of Agriculture at the University of Tokyo. For him, it was an effort undertaken to better understand the food system and meaningfully contribute to the future of gastronomy. Under his thoughtful leadership, L’Effervescence has won numerous awards that applaud its conscious cuisine. It has been a fixture on Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants lists since 2014 and currently sits at No.71 on the 2022 list, as well on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants extended lists since 2015, where it most recently ranked at No.99 in 2021.
Namae will receive the award at an in-person ceremony held on March 28 in Singapore. Visit theworlds50best.com.
