If you’re a passionate food lover, you’ve probably heard of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, the leading guide that ranks restaurants internationally with an awards ceremony and a list each year. You might have noticed in our Instagram bios or in our social media posts that we sometimes mention that we are 50 Best TasteHunters. If you are wondering, “What is a Taste Hunter?” You’re not alone! We get asked this question a lot, so wanted to demystify what it means to be a TasteHunter and answer some of the frequently asked questions. 50 Best has hand-selected “TasteHunters” (a.k.a. digital brand ambassadors) to represent them around the globe. TasteHunters are food bloggers (with an emphasis on fine dining), who are passionate about food, travel, chefs, and industry issues such as food waste, sustainability, diversity, and equality. Since we are based in Copenhagen, we are TasteHunters for the Nordic region (Scandinavia, specifically!), but we also try to visit as many restaurants and bars on The World’s 50 Best lists as possible during our travels. This means we’ve visited lots of the world’s best restaurants while traveling in London, Barcelona, Bilbao, Paris, Vienna, Antwerp, Berlin, Singapore, Bangkok, Bali, Hong Kong, Macau, New York City, Mexico City, and beyond. We’ve made it a goal to visit as many of these bucket list restaurants as possible, from Noma to Eleven Madison Park to Osteria Francescana to El Celler de Can Roca.
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What is a TasteHunter?
A TasteHunter is a food and travel aficionado, social media influencer, and digital brand ambassador for The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, hand-picked by the organization. We promote our best restaurant experiences around the world on our social media accounts and spread the word about exciting industry news and events. We also do take-overs on The World’s 50 Best Instagram and Facebook channels. We attend and cover the events hosted by 50 Best annually, including The World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards ceremony, The World’s 50 Best Bars, Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants, Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants, and 50 Best Talks, and we post about them on our social media channels.
Do You Vote on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants?
NO! Because we are TasteHunters, we can not vote on the list. The voters are anonymous, they are 50% male and 50% female, and at least 25% of the voters are rotated every year in order to keep the list fresh. There are 1,000 industry experts who vote on The World’s 50 Best list every year – they are chefs and restaurateurs, food writers, and well-traveled gourmets. For more information on how the voting works, click here.
Are You Paid by The World’s 50 Best?
NO! This is an unpaid position. We are also never paid by any restaurants in exchange for promotion on our channels (this is not just in regards to 50 Best, this is a general policy for us). If you are curious about how we make a living as bloggers, check out this blog post.
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Does The World’s 50 Best Cover Your Restaurant and Travel Expenses?
NO! The World’s 50 Best does not pay for any restaurant meals or travel expenses. All flights, hotels, and meals are always covered by us. We also have a policy of never asking a restaurant for a free meal, and 50 Best expects this of all the other TasteHunters as well.
How Can I Become a TasteHunter?
If you are a food blogger who loves food and travel, you could definitely be a TasteHunter one day! Take pictures of your restaurant visits, share them on social media, and tag @theworlds50best account frequently and you’re off to a good start. (Note: only one TasteHunter is allowed per region, so it definitely helps to be based in a location where there aren’t any TasteHunters!) Contact The World’s 50 Best to apply.
Who Are the Current TasteHunters?
The World’s 50 Best evaluates the group of TasteHunters every year. Here is the current list of TasteHunters – give them a follow!
- Amelie Vincent @thefoodalist based in Brussels, Belgium
- Anders Husa @andershusa and Kaitlin Orr @carnivorr based in Copenhagen, Denmark
- Cheryl Tiu @chertiu based in Manila, Philippines and Miami, USA
- Doris Sun @cocktailfiles based in Vancouver, Canada
- I-Hua Lim @msihua and Aaron Tan @zeboy based in Melbourne, Australia
- Kat Odell @kat_odell based in Chicago, USA
- Kaylee Folster @getinmybelly.co.za based in Johannesburg, South Africa
- Keisui Suzuki @keisui based in Tokyo, Japan
- Michael Ligier @michaelligier based in San Francisco, USA
- Milly Kenny-Ryder @millykr based in London, UK
- Oscar Barrera @oscarbarreramarengo based in Santiago, Chile
- Ruxandra and Gabriel Gavrilescu @amusebouche_ro based in Bucharest, Romania
- Seth Shezi @seth_shezi based in Cape Town, South Africa
- Sihan Lee @thedrinkseeker based in Loire Valley, France
- Smitha Menon @champarani based in Mumbai, India
- Theresa Aves and Michael Chorr @theneverfull based in Toronto, Canada
What’s your favorite restaurant on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list? Let us know in a comment below!
Thanks for this post – indeed interesting! I know about the 50 best – of course 😉 I usually watch the ceremony live as well. I am not sure I am allow to have any opinion about the list since I’ve only been to three of the restaurants there (Noma, Geranium and Frantzén), and I didn’t even visit them all during the same year xD… but out of those three, I believe Frantzén is the best.
We certainly don’t disagree about Frantzén! It’s still our favorite dining experience in the world. 🙂
Frantzen is for me thogether with Osteria Fransescana the best. And a little bit off Belgian chauvinisme makes Hof Van Cleve also one off our favorits.
Still haven’t been to Hof Van Cleve – hope to go one day!
Can you take 10 pound, for few on cleveland they are very hungry. Its been lots of generation. I can give a hand if needed.
Not sure I understand this message. 🙂
You 2 are definitely the best on this list. Really. I mean, you have been among the best before that position.
As for some of the others, especially the Europeans… excuse me, but… The Foodalist?!?
2 questions/answered should be added to the FAQ: 1. Does 50Best covers the expenses of your travels and restaurant visits? (which I would expect) 2. Do restaurants invite you, because you are TasteHunters? (which would be understandable)
Great questions! Thanks for pointing them out.
1. No! 50Best does not cover any of our travel expenses or restaurant costs. We always have to cover that ourselves.
2. As a rule, we never ask for free meals from restaurants – and 50 Best expects the same from all the TasteHunters. Restaurants will sometimes invite us, but this is not only because we are TasteHunters but because we have a large following in general. As a general policy, however, we don’t accept free stuff in exchange for posts/promotion on our channels.
Has there been some kind of error, or have my last 2 comments been deleted? (for which I don’t see a reason).
No comments have been deleted! All comments just have to be approved by us before they show up on the post. 🙂
Hi, i´m an 18 years old teenager that loves food, traveling and also cooking, so that is why i want to become a TasteHunter based in Montevideo Uruguay but i have no idea how to start. As you are the best in this, after a long time watching your content and finding out that South America does not have any TasteHunter, i want to be the first with you help
I wish you could help me
Thanks from Uruguay, Montevideo!
Be sure to reach out to 50 Best directly! We don’t pick the TasteHunters 🙂
Yes i know that, but i need to know if you could share some tips for me that i´m just starting on this. For example: what tipe of restaurants i should go, what to include at the moment of vote if i like or not or when to mencion them in a post, etc.
I am really proud of you and i wish i become as good as you, never best, you are N°1 on this jajaja.
thank
Visiting restaurants that are on the 50 Best list, or the 50 Best Discovery list is a good place to start 🙂
I will try to improve the 50 best Latin America discovering new places firstly in Montevideo, Uruguay and then in the rest of South America as soon as I can knowing that is not easy. All places will be posted on my instagram that i just started a few days ago @diego_canepa2.0. Have you been to Uruguay yet? We have some restaurants on the best 50 Latin America and one is on the 16 position! You must try it
Again, really really thanks.
We haven’t been yet but definitely hope to visit one day! 🙂