San, an up-and-coming fine-dining restaurant in Seoul's Gangnam district, received the One To Watch Award 2026 at Asia's 50 Best Restaurants (A50B), known as the Academy Awards of the culinary world. It is the first time a Korean restaurant has won this special prize since Chef Kim Dae-cheon's TocToc in 2017. This year's ceremony is set to take place on Mar. 25 in Hong Kong, drawing the attention of food lovers around the world.
Just as the Olympics crown the world's best athletes in sports, the culinary world has The World's 50 Best Restaurants (W50B), organized by 50 Best, to name the world's top restaurants. 50 Best is an organization that introduces noteworthy restaurants, bars and hotels around the world. 50 Best partners with Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (DTTL), a professional services consulting firm, to select the 50 finest restaurants worldwide each year.
A50B is an awards ceremony limited to the Asia region within W50B. More than 300 W50B voting panel members in Asia, including chefs, food journalists and restaurateurs, vote each year to determine the rankings. The One To Watch Award that San won is given to a restaurant that has made its presence felt in the culinary world and is highly likely to enter the main A50B list in the future.
Opened in 2024, San is a French-influenced modern Korean fine-dining restaurant led by Chef Cho Seung-hyun. After working at world-class restaurants such as The French Laundry in the United States and La Maison Troisgros in France, Cho served for eight years as executive chef at the Michelin three-star restaurant Benu in San Francisco. Cho is known for a technique that adds a Korean sensibility to classical French cuisine to reinterpret Korean food with depth and precision.
San is described in the fine-dining industry as "preserving the essence of seasonal ingredients while designing sauces as precise structures of flavor rather than simple condiments." Signature dishes include a course featuring shrimp gochujang made with a highly concentrated broth from shrimp heads, and lightly poached squid paired with a squid-ink chogochujang. In particular, experts said Cho, drawing on childhood memories, modernized Busan-style dwaeji gukbap by topping it with caviar (sturgeon roe), and reinterpreted melon as a mulkimchi-style "melon dongchimi," capturing innovation within familiarity. In addition, sommelier Joo Jae-min's carefully curated wine pairings further highlight the dining experience by harmonizing with the cuisine's layered flavors.
Asia's 50 Best Restaurants said it "has further elevated excellence, precision and respect for national traditions while following the encouraging momentum shown by innovative restaurants in Seoul."
The ceremony will begin at 8 p.m. local time in Hong Kong on Mar. 25. With the event, Hong Kong is expected to further cement its standing as a global culinary hub. Given that Hong Kong has led Asia's high-end dining trends, the gathering of world-class chefs for this event is expected to draw a surge of global gastronomic tourists.