THE WORLD’S 50 BEST RESTAURANTS by Max Jacobson
Every year, the San Pellegrino water people sponsor a voting panel to select the world’s Top 50 restaurants. Many in the panel, of which I am a member, are food journalists, professionals, or similar experts.
The only requirement, in terms of the vote, is having eaten in a place chosen inside of a certain time interval. The voting is arbitrary but not random. There are rarely eccentric choices such as this year’s darling, Momofuku Ssom Bar in New York City, and the list is heavily skewed in favor of France, Italy and this country.
Only four restaurants in Asia made it, but a single restaurant in S. America, (Brazil’s D.O.M.), and two in South Africa. Not a single one on the vaunted Vegas Strip made the list, though the Paris L’Atelier Joel Robuchon made it at #36. Joel Robuchon at the Mansion in Vegas isn’t listed, though, in spite of having Three Michelin Stars.
I consider the Vegas Robuchon, as many do, the best restaurant in the United States. I attribute such a snub to the fact that the wags haven’t eaten there since it opened, and thus, were not permitted to rate it.
The surprise winner this year is Noma, a cutting edge restaurant in Copenhagen. It displaced El Bulli, which I wrote will close at the end of next year, which came in at #2. The third place finisher, England’s The Fat Duck, is again, a laboratory for molecular gastronomy, which tells me that food critics are tired of conventional Three Star cooking.
Not to boast, I have eaten in six of the Top Ten, El Bulli, The Fat Duck, the #4, Spain’s El Celler de Can Roca, New York’s Daniel (owned by the chef who is about to close DB Brasserie at the Wynn, Daniel Boulud,) a Spanish place called Arzak, in San Sebastian, and New York’s Per Se.
Don’t you find it a little odd that Per Se comes in at #10, while its clone and originator in Napa County, French Laundry, has plummeted to #32, down twenty positions. The French Laundry, by the way, is a two-time #1. This is what I mean by arbitrary. As the great Boston Celtics coach Red Auerbach once said about New York, “we won ten championships, got one book. The (New York) Knicks won one championship, and they got ten books.” Sorry, Thomas.
I also find it notable that not a single Chinese restaurant anywhere is on the list. Chinese cuisine is acknowledged by many as the world’s #1 cuisine, in spite of what the French or Italians say. My fellow judges do not no Jake about Chinese food, I fear, or otherwise, are just dense.
Still and all, it’s a fun list to browse, and while on the Website, you can see all the past winners as well. The closest you can get here is Twist, the Vegas outpost of Pierre Gagnaire in Paris, listed at #13.
You can browse the list here.
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