Jirka Zajíček wins prestigious award at The Best Chef Awards 2025 in Milan
At the beginning of October, Milan became the centre of world gastronomy. The prestigious event The Best Chef Awards 2025 brought together hundreds of chefs, experts and journalists from around the world to honour the best of the best. This year, four Slovak chefs were among them, taking home the One Knife award – a symbol of gastronomic excellence.
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I take this award as recognition for our entire team. We cook with passion, respect for the ingredients and with the goal of bringing guests an experience, not just dinner. To be included among the world’s gastronomic community is a great honour for us.
says Jirka Zajíček.
Head Chef of ARTE Restaurant
The Best Chef Awards – a global platform full of talent and inspiration
The Best Chef Awards is a global initiative that recognizes chefs for their creativity, innovation, and contributions to the culinary world.
Judging is conducted by an international panel comprising 972 voters —including 572 chefs and 400 experts from the culinary and media fields.
Instead of a traditional ranking, the organization awards “knives” – a symbol of the level of mastery:
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🥇 Three Knives – The Best (highest award),
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🥈 Two Knives – World Class,
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🥉 One Knife – Excellent, highlighting chefs with exceptional quality, craft and attitude.
Award for ARTE and the whole Slovakia
Jirka Zajíček is among the elite of the world gastronomy – the “One Knife” award was awarded together with him to Lukáš Heuser (ORIGIN), Daniel Tilinger (ECK) and Jozef Breza (Gašperov mlyn).
This achievement confirms that Slovak gastronomy is keeping pace with the world’s finest cuisines.
ARTE thus joins the ranks of restaurants that represent modern Slovak cuisine on the international stage—in the spirit of combining craftsmanship, tradition, and an artistic approach.
Thank you, Jirka!
We view this award from Milan as a success for the entire ARTE team —both the kitchen and the service staff—who create exceptional culinary experiences for our guests every day.
We are proud that our head chef, Jirka Zajíček, has become part of The Best Chef community, which is shaping the future of global gastronomy.
