Introducing the inaugural foodie awards, plus five restaurants that made the shortlist.

The first Michelin-starred restaurant I ever visited was when I’d finished university and moved, fresh faced, to the Big Smoke. I was led through a chintzy reception along to the pastel-hued main spectacle. Front of house plumped me near the loos, but I still enjoyed the food. Did I return? Reader, I did not. Table positioning aside, the ambience was dead and the white starched tablecloth, which cruelly illuminated any speck of clumsy spillage, was too formal.

If the past decade’s boom in street food, micro restaurants and single-specialism joints is anything to go by, it’s not just me who fails to cherish some of these formal institutions. Yet they remain a hallmark of the best places to eat. Why? Because it’s plus ça change for guides such as Michelin and The World’s 50 Best Restaurants.

Although Michelin and The World’s 50 Best try to move with the epochal shifts (a Singaporean street market gained a star a couple of years back), their rankings generally favour a specific type of fine diner. First, there’s a predictable lack of diversity. Second, they reliably award three stars or include in the top 50 places where you spend a packet. Another trademark of both systems is meriting anally retentive tweezer food. While it’s a style that can be heart-stoppingly brilliant, it’s often an overly fussy experience.

Which is why an insurgent inaugural awards, which kicks off in Paris on Monday 18 February, is interesting. Putting two influential fingers up to the status quo, The World Restaurant Awards, a food Oscars created by IMG, the company behind New York Fashion Week and Frieze Art Fair, touts small and ethical players alongside the grandees. The shortlist features places that are more relevant to us, the restaurant-greedy public, with categories such as Ethical Thinking, which recognises environmental policy, staff welfare and community engagement, and Atmosphere Of The Year, which takes into consideration service, acoustics and ambience. To counterbalance the emphasis on city eateries, there’s an Off-Map Destination prize for remote locations.

“The shortlist reflects our goal to shine a light on the incredibly diverse food, drinks, experiences and destinations that should be on everyone’s bucket list,” says Ms Cecile Rebbot, director of The World Restaurant Awards. Ms Rebbot and her gang recognise that eating out now covers a broader range of repasts. Our appetites are changing and there’s more out there than the elite-clique-pleasuring palaces.

Wander along the sandy beach of King Edward’s Bay in Tynemouth in north-east England and you’ll spot an inconspicuous shack with deckchairs dotted in front, which offers chargrilled street-food-style bites all year round. All the ingredients, including fresh mackerel, lobster and turbot, come direct from local fisheries. Arrive hungry, suck up the views and eat in dazed bliss.

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Chef Mr Kobus van der Merwe quietly opened this small restaurant last year in a humble 130-year-old building and cave on South Africa’s west coast. It’s the fabric of this remote place, its vegetation and the Atlantic Ocean that define the creations on his tasting menu. Not only does he regularly forage indigenous ingredients, but he makes everything from the butter to the bread himself. Book in advance – there is room for 20 diners only.

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Vespertine curdles the punter’s brain. As the late food critic Mr Jonathan Gold said in the LA Times, “You are not exactly sure what you are eating.” The ever-changing prix-fixe menu, by chef Mr Jordan Kahn, bamboozles with comestibles such as yucca blossom petals, giant kelp and white asparagus appearing as coins. All this makes for high culinary drama and an atmosphere thick with otherworldliness.

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A third of the food we produce is chucked away, yet more than 800 million people worldwide are undernourished. Food for Soul, which was founded by chef Mr Massimo Bottura and his wife, Ms Lara Gilmore, is redefining the traditional role of the canteen. It shows what can be achieved with a bit of imagination and lashings of perseverance. From Italy to the UK, France and Brazil, they’ve set up community kitchens where professional chefs volunteer to cook food that would otherwise be thrown away for homeless people and others in need of support.

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The warm wood ceiling, reclaimed wooden tables and sharing menus create an ambience that is understated and cosy. The food is simple, but superb. Clamato is run by young chefs Mr Bertrand Grébaut and Mr Théo Pourriat and majors in seafood, all from sustainable sources and caught using traditional techniques. We would suggest the sea urchin, raw cuttlefish and wild oysters. That said, ever hoggish, we’re also salivating over the maple syrup tart.

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