Chef Wan criticises CNN's worlds best food destination ranking

Malaysia is ranked sixth as the destination for world’s best food by CNN, but celebrity chef Datuk Redzuawan Ismail or fondly known as Chef Wan thinks Malaysia should be listed higher in the list.

“My top five choices in terms of variety should be: number one Malaysia, followed by Italy, Thailand, Japan and India,” he told Astro AWANI today.

“I see food as varieties and flavours that reflect the culture and food, and that is why Malaysia should be the first world’s best food destination”, said Chef Wan.

Skeptical with the poll, Chef Wan said that Pilipino food should be at the most bottom of the pact and that the poll does not reflect the true image of the food of the country at all.

“Philippines is known to have the worst food in Asia, ask any chefs and they will tell you I am right," he said.

CNN had featured the most popular cuisines on its website, based on its readers’ vote for their favourite culinary destination in an open Facebook poll.

Number one on this poll is Taiwan with 8,242 votes.

This could be because of Taiwan’s gastronomic simplicity, CNN suggested. With its eclectic island food of Chinese and Japanese cooking and boasting of 20 streets dedicated to snacking in its capital, Taipei,Taiwan made it to the top of this poll.

Italy and Greece are the only non-Asian country that got onto this list, which proves that Asian food has invaded the taste buds of people of the world.

Philipines made it to number two with 1,528 votes, followed by Italy with only 810 votes.

Sushi heaven, Japan falls at number three and then comes Malaysia at number six with 265 votes. Shy of one vote from Malaysia is Hong Kong, which made it to number seven.

Bottom three of the poll is India with 205 votes, Greece with 167 votes and Vietnam with 162 votes.