The Best Restaurants in the World 2008
Who are the winners and losers….
The much anticipated S.Pellegrino (in conjunction with ‘Restaurant’ magazine) award for the best restaurant in the world has just been announced.
Restaurant magazine has built up a respectable following here in the UK and the S.Pellegrino awards are recognised around the world with the leading chefs from as far as America, Australia and Hong Kong travelling to London for the awards ceremony.
What I find most interesting about these awards is how it shows the current fashions in food and how it can shape people’s thinking towards a particular style of cuisine over the next twelve months or more.
Last year’s top three remains the same, first and second go to the leaders of the molecular gastronomy movement with places three and four to Pierre Gaignaire and Andoni Luis Aduriz, both exponents of cutting edge cuisine with more than a tip of the hat to the food science movement.
A previous overall winner, the American Thomas Keller slips to fifth but another of his restaurants, ‘Per Se’ climbs three to sixth. Restaurant Gordon Ramsay is up but still not in the top ten and, like Alain Ducasse’s flagship restaurant at eighteenth I wonder if the judges are favouring those chefs who remain in their respective kitchens ?
The list is not without it’s eyebrow raising moments, is ‘St John’ in London twenty two places better than ‘Charlie Trotter’ in Chicago whilst ‘Guy Savoy’ in Paris doesn’t even make the top 100!
Here’s the winners:
1. El Bulli (Spain)
2. The Fat Duck (England)
3. Pierre Gaignaire (France)
4. Mugaritz (Spain)
5. The French Laundry (USA)
6. Per Se (USA)
7. Bras (France)
8. Arzak (Spain)
9. Tetsuya’s (Australia)
10. Noma (Denmark)
11. L’Astrance (France)
12. Gambero Rosso (Italy)
13. Restaurant Gordon Ramsay (England)
14. L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon (France)
15. Le Louis XV (France)
16. St John (England)
17. Jean Georges (USA)
18. Alain Ducasse au Plaza Athenee (France)
19. Hakkasan (England)
20. Le Bernadin (USA)
MIles
how accurate is the list regarded to be by professionals ?
Is there a ‘political’ element involved in the compiling of it - as you say, no Guy Savoy !
April 27, 2008 @ 7:36 am
Rod,
The panel of judges is comprised of food critics, journalists and the like from each country. I would suspect an element of bias does come into it, every one of Robuchons latest venture is featured whilst a number of European three star restaurants do not. Much of this comes down to an interesting debate, when I ate at Guy Savoy I had sixteen inceredible dishes, nothing cutting edge or scientific but just the best ingredients cooked under the eye of a great chef (who was there on both occasions, ten years apart incidentally) On the other hand you have chefs cooking incredibly complicated dishes with food matches one would never dream up, but how good does it taste. I have read some very mixed reports of certain dishes, so is it art for arts sake? Personally I would go for the overall dining experience at Guy Savoy because hot jellies, parmesan air and the like don’t really do it for me on a purely eating level. I do have absolute respect for what they are doing and why they do it but I wouldn’t choose to pay for it.
April 27, 2008 @ 8:22 am