How does food bring us together? Chefs weigh in at 50 Best

Inspired by S.Pellegrino’s special-edition bottles, chefs at The 50 Best Restaurants 2026 share reflections on how food brings people together.

Fine Dining Lovers

06 Nov 2026

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Family. Culture. Tradition. A table ready to welcome food and people. The question, common across the globe: “Have you eaten yet?” There's nothing quite like food to bring us together.

Just ask the chefs. In Lima, during the events surrounding The 50 Best Restaurants 2026, we posed a meaningful question featured on S.Pellegrino special edition bottles directly to them: “How does food bring us together?”

Their answers were varied, but they all centred on the same concept: the desire to spend time together. Not only that: several chefs also emphasised that food is a universal language, capable of creating connections and understood by everyone.

From caring for others to endless conversations, via the traditions unique to each country, join us in discovering what the stars of The 50 Best Restaurants 2026 had to say.

Feeding others is an act of love

There are cultures in which food truly represents an act of love. For chef Aisha Ibrahim (who is set to open a new restaurant in New York in 2027), her Filipino heritage has had a profound influence on her vision and approach to food, which she regards as a genuine expression of affection not only for loved ones but also for those she meets for the first time.

“It's about coming to the table with your loved ones, or even better, strangers”, she said. “Food brings us together because it's about something personal for all of us. Sustenance, love, caring, and being Filipino, the most loving thing one can ask is, ‘Have you eaten yet today?’”

“When we think of a dish we like, we immediately think of the person we’d like to share it with,” suggested Mohamed Benabdallah, sommelier at Asador Etxebarri, the winner of The 50 Best Restaurants 2026, “and this makes food a way of sharing important moments with those closest to us.” Etxebarri chef Victor Arguinzoniz was on the same wavelength: “The best part of a dish? Sharing it with friends.”

Chef José del Castillo (Isolina, Lima, Peru) recognises the power of his craft – the everyday act of preparing something for others: “Cooking is an act of love,” he said, “and what better way to share this love than by gathering round a table?”

Cooking as an emotion, then. A sentiment also shared by chef Tassia Magalhães (Nelita, São Paulo, Brazil): “I believe that food brings us together because food is love, and love unites everyone around a lovely table, with friends and family. That’s how we always find ourselves together, around food,” she said.

The dining table, every day

Then there are the gestures and moments of daily life that, by their very nature, involve sharing a meal. Think of breakfast, a barbecue with friends or Sunday lunch: different occasions, yet all foster relationships.

Chef Renzo Garibaldi (Osso, Lima, Peru) sees the dining table as the place that accompanies us as we grow up, as we evolve year after year: “We've always been shown that the table is the place to be: where we hang out, where we talk with our parents, our friends, our kids. And what's on the table? Food. Food always brings us together”.

In short, our habits change, as do the people we sit down with at the table, but food is always the reason we do it.

This is an interesting perspective shared by chef José Luis Castro (Don Eduardo, Lima, Peru), who associates food with moments throughout the day but, above all, with occasions worth remembering: “It brings us together at the start of the day, with breakfast; it brings us together with friends, over a good barbecue; it brings us together with family at important moments. So it always brings us together.”

Álvaro Clavijo (El Chato, Bogotá, Colombia; winner of Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025) also highlighted the family aspect of Sundays, marked first by a trip to the market and then by preparing lunch with the family. For him, cooking is about flavours that evoke memories: “Every meal begins with the choice of ingredients and brings a piece of one’s own history to the table”.

“A cevichito in the city centre, friends, family, a bit of water, a beer, something to savour: that’s how food brings us together,” echoed fellow chef Anthony Vásquez (La Mar, Lima, Peru).

And Nicolai Nørregaard (Kadeau, Copenhagen, Denmark) summed it up perfectly: “Food is the moment of the day that brings everyone together, because we all have to eat, and if you’re rich, if you’re poor, it doesn’t matter: you have to eat around the table, and that’s why food is so important”.

Sharing a dish, sharing a part of oneself

But what happens when cooking becomes a profession, as in a chef? The difference isn’t that great, because serving a dish is always the culmination of a journey. As chef Rodolfo Guzmán (Boragò, Santiago, Chile) explained: “It’s simple: cooks, we're very passionate about what we do, for the ingredients; ingredients that sometimes are hard to get. You cook the best you can and put it on the table. That's an act of sharing.”

From selecting the ingredients to deciding how to prepare them and which techniques to use, everything is done with dedication to creating something special – choices born of passion.

For this reason, it's often said dishes reflect chefs and their stories. James Berckemeyer (Cosme, Lima, Peru) expanded on food as a storytelling tool: “Food is not only eating. Food is a connection between each other, our cultural histories, and of course sharing a lovely table with friends and family and having a great moment”.

From the question “Have you eaten yet?” to a restaurant menu, food is therefore always a vehicle for care, culture and connection. The chefs were in no doubt: whether at home or in a restaurant, a dish is meant to be shared, and with it the story and essence of the person who prepared it.

Food as a universal language

There is one final – but by no means unimportant – aspect that chefs recognise in food: that it is a universal language. The power of flavour lies in this: it touches upon the kind of perception that erases all differences, whether cultural or generational.

As Iré Hassan-Odukale (co-founder of Ikoyi, London, UK) put it: “Food unites us because it connects us.” Prateek Sadhu (Naar, Himachal Pradesh, India) explained it perfectly: “The one language everybody speaks is food. That’s how food brings us together”. While Naar’s Executive Chef Kamlesh Negi said: “Food is a universal language, so when you go somewhere you look for food: that’s the best way to know someone’s culture”.

In short, the strength and power of an authentic flavour know no barriers or boundaries. And the victory of Asador Etxebarri, with its authenticity at the forefront, is perhaps the clearest demonstration of this.