Want to taste the future? 12forward by White Guide is here.

Are you curious about the latest culinary developments? Do you want to know where to find the truly “food-forward” game-changers and get a bite of the future? 12forward has got you covered. 

12forward by White Guide is a new digital guide to the most innovative and radical restaurants in the world’s most gastronomically advanced cities. Soft-launching right now, the app can be downloaded from the App Store. The freemium offers a selection of leading gastro-destinations for free – in December Copenhagen, Berlin and Tokyo. More cities are available for in-app purchase and new ones are introduced on a continuous basis. Eventually the app will cover some 30-40 cities worldwide, wherever the most forward-thinking food is cooking, be it in star-studded fine dining establishments or simple hole-in-the wall joints. The listings are limited to 12 eateries in each city, as soon as a new trailblazer enters the stage an older one gets knocked off. 

12forward is produced by White Guide, the Scandinavian restaurant guide that has been a driving force behind the New Nordic food revolution from its outset. Taking a step onto the global arena, it’s now establishing local and regional White Guides, wherever there are dynamic food scenes to cover and support. This will be done through franchise operations following its Scandinavian business and editorial model, as well as through new global initiatives, such as 12forward. 

White Guide has enlisted some of the world’s leading food writers and restaurant reviewers as contributing editors. They all reside in the cities they cover to ensure continuous monitoring. 

What is a forward restaurant and a forward city? This is something White Guides’ publisher Lars Peder Hedberg and the editors have been struggling with for some time.

“For a restaurant to be included, it has to challenge some fundamental feature of contemporary cooking”, says Stockholm/Berlin-based Hedberg. “There has to be an element of controversy, posing a relevant question about how you source, prepare or present food, and preferably an answer suggesting a possible new route for gastronomy to explore. That’s our definition of food-forward.” 

“Serving excellent food is not enough” says New York/Los Angeles-based Executive Editor Argot Murelius. “In fact, if people find a meal entirely tasty and comforting it’s most likely not forward.” 

“A 12forward city is any city that has at least 12 eateries that fit these criteria”, continues Hedberg. “We believe there are perhaps 40 such cities in the world, and eventually we will cover them all. By doing this we will certainly know in what directions gastronomy is heading and where passionate food lovers can get the most interesting experiences worldwide.” 

12forward is currently available for iPhone, and will be available for Android in January 2017, along with a mobile-friendly website with additional features such as trend reports from the frontlines of gastronomy and “meet the game-changers” chef-profiles. 12forward cooking events will also be arranged in choice covered cities starting in 2017.