The World’s 50 Best Restaurants has today announced its Champions of Change winners for 2024, the heroes of hospitality at the forefront of positive action and long-term progress within the industry and their local communities.
The award, part of the forthcoming The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2024 programme, sponsored by S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna, was launched in 2021 to celebrate the industry’s unsung gamechangers as the hospitality sector rebuilt itself post-pandemic. This year’s Champions of Change accolade is awarded to a duo based in Italy whose ground-breaking initiative supports migrant women, and a Brazilian chef determined to help forge a better future for the youth of Rio’s favelas. 50 Best will make a financial donation to each of the winner’s causes, allowing the recipients to continue building their initiatives and supporting long-term progress in the restaurant and gastronomic spheres.
Roots in Modena is a migrant women-led social enterprise model operating as a co-working space by day and a restaurant by night, which aims to showcase the cultural and human value of Modena’s newest chefs. In April 2020, USA-born Caroline Caporossi and Canadian-born chef Jessica Rosval founded the Association for the Integration of Women, whose mission is to provide resources for women to establish roots and flourish. In 2022, alongside co-founder Maria Assunta Ioele, they opened Roots as a self-sustaining social impact model, meeting place and incubator for the future. It is a space where migrant women in Modena can learn, work and build self-confidence as they take their first steps towards careers in Modena.
The team’s mission is simple: to provide migrant women, considered the most disadvantaged group to integrate socially and economically throughout the EU, with resources for professional growth. From professional kitchen training to support networks and job market access, Roots aims to support these women beyond the kitchen to create their own future opportunities, while growing skills and self-confidence to help them secure future roles in the kitchens of Modena and beyond.
The Association for the Integration of Women, made up entirely of volunteer members from diverse cultural and professional backgrounds, trains 12 women each year in a four-month cycle. Candidates are referred by community partners and selected based on language skills, motivation, and passion for food, with an ever-changing menu inspired by the nationality of its talent.
Brazilian João Diamante is also named a Champion of Change and is the founder of social project Diamantes Na Cozinha (Diamonds in the Kitchen), which runs cooking, nutrition and hospitality courses for young people in vulnerable situations living in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro.
After growing up in a favela himself, Diamante benefitted from social programmes as a teenager before joining the Brazilian Navy, where he began working as a kitchen assistant. After five years of working his way up through the kitchen, he attended gastronomy college before training in Paris under Alain Ducasse. However, he felt compelled to return to Rio to help others in his home community and founded Diamantes Na Cozinha in 2016, helping over 3,000 people since. Losing several friends to violence while growing up fuelled his mission: Diamante believes passionately that teenagers need protection from organised crime and drug addiction – the most common problems in Brazil’s favelas – and by enrolling people as young as 16 in his courses he is not only helping these individuals emerge from impoverished situations but helping improve the Brazilian economy.
Diamantes Na Cozinha is creating a new generation of talent through courses covering hospitality, cooking, food anthropology and cocktail-making. From its small beginnings in a tiny space that had to hold classes in rotation, it now serves up to 100 students in semester-long courses. Earlier this year, Diamante opened his own restaurant in Rio, Diamante Gastrobar, where the majority of the staff are graduates from his school.
William Drew, Director of Content for The World’s 50 Best Restaurants said; “The Champions of Change awards recognise those making a real difference to the future of hospitality and we are proud to award such deserving recipients this year. The work that these individuals are doing to contribute to a better future for their communities is admirable and we are excited to support the development of such valuable projects.”
Caroline Caporossi and Jessica Rosval say: “What an honour to receive this recognition from 50 Best. We are so proud of our graduates; the success of Roots is made possible by the value that they bring to our kitchen everyday and this award is further testament to the human and economic capital of women everywhere.”
João Diamante says: “Being named a Champion of Change is a huge compliment and I am grateful for the appreciation of our work. This project was started to help people in situations of social vulnerability in Rio on a path to a better future and I’m proud of being able to share this with a global audience.”
Champions of Change is the third of several awards to be revealed ahead of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2024 awards ceremony, which will be held at Wynn Las Vegas, on the evening of Wednesday, 5th June. This year’s programme will include a series of key events which have become the cornerstone of 50 Best Restaurants celebrations: thought-leadership forum #50BestTalks; the 50 Best Signature Sessions series of collaborative dining events open to the public; a Chefs’ Feast showcasing superlative Las Vegas fine dining, all culminating in the awards ceremony and countdown itself, as well as the official 50 Best Closing Party.
