10 winning photos from the World Food Photography Awards 2026

From a Soviet-era sanatorium to a floating market in Bangladesh, this year's World Food Photography Awards capture the many ways food shapes daily life around the world.

The 2026 competition, sponsored by Tenderstem® Bimi® Broccolini, drew nearly 9,000 entries from more than 50 countries, immortalising harvests, markets, family kitchens, street food, celebrations and survival. With just one click, food photographers around the world created a global portrait of food culture, showing not just what people eat, but how food is woven into everyday life.

Here are some of this year's most striking winning images.

Overall winner: Jo Kearney, UK

British photographer Jo Kearney's winning shot captured a solitary moment in the canteen of a Soviet-era sanatorium in Tajikistan – a reminder that food photography can be as much about evoking memory and place as it is about whetting appetite. At Khoja Obi Garm in the mountains of Tajikistan, guests still gather for simple, hearty meals between prescribed treatments. Built on radon-rich hot springs, the vast concrete "health hotel" once offered workers two weeks of annual rest. Today, its low cost continues to draw local Tajiks, visitors from neighbouring Central Asian countries and the occasional backpacker.

Winner, Food for Celebration: Pingyao Song, China

At a hotpot festival in China, hundreds of diners gather around a vast communal banquet. The red broth, rich with chilli, Sichuan peppercorn, fermented bean paste, beef tallow and spices, becomes both meal and spectacle as guests eat, film and livestream the feast.

Winner, Cream of the Crop: Albert González, Spain

In Ine, a fishing village in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan, squid dries in the sun using the traditional technique of himono. The preservation method, used for fish and seafood, draws flavour from salt, air and time, linking the village's food traditions to the sea that sustains it.

Winner, Bring Home the Harvest: Marco Rutten, Netherlands

At sunrise beneath Kolkata's Howrah Bridge, a small crew hauls in nets from the Hooghly River. Their catch will be sold in nearby markets and cooked that same morning in........

© BBC