S. Pellegrino Announces World’s 50 Best Restaurants

The News
The Murder’s Row era New York Yankees, the 1980s Edmonton Oilers, and the 1990s Chicago Bulls simultaneously titillated and infuriated the masses. Some championed their unrivaled excellence while the unsurprising results bored others. The same can be said of Restaurant Magazine and S. Pellegrino’s annual World’s 50 Best Restaurants . Full of illustrious restaurants from across the globe, this year’s list is typically stacked. It’s also typically boring.

Behind the News
Various entries and movements spiced up the roll, such as high-placed new inclusions Osteria Francescana (#13), Les Creations Narisawa (#20), and Steirereck (#30), and comeback stories like reentries Masa (#27) and La Colombe (#38). However, of the top ten, six restaurants held their ground, scoring the same placing as last year.

Douglas Coupland once observed that lottery retailers sell the most tickets the day after a draw. He reasoned that people want to hold on to the hope, the anticipation, as long as they possibly can. Like a movie trailer, the time leading up to the Top 50 announcement holds onto the opportunity for perfection. Observers have some idea of what they’re going to get, but they don’t know for certain who will win. Or do they?

Ferran Adria’s world-famous El Bulli topped this year’s list…again. The Spanish molecular gastronomy stronghold has won four years in a row. Before that, it had a couple of second place prizes on its mantle, as well as a previous victory in 2002. You can set your watch by El Bulli’s victories. The Vegas odds must have been terrible.

Similarly, second place hasn’t changed in four years, with the UK’s The Fat Duck continuously turning up in the always-a-bridesmaid slot. The Duck did score a first place finish in 2005, besting El Bulli and intensifying the Nadal/Federer-style rivalry, though, like Federer post-Wimbledon 2008, the Duck cannot best its perennial foe. Both exponents of molecular gastronomy, both helmed by celebrity chefs, and both situated remotely, El Bulli and the Fat Duck have more in common than just their beloved status in the international foodie community.

As per usual (again), the World’s 50 Best relies heavily on French fare and France itself is well represented with six restaurants, tying it with Spain and Italy. The USA ranks first in representation, with eight restos, including two in the top ten. More impressively, four of Spain’s six turn up in the highest eight.

Asia, Africa, and South America notably have few honours, totaling a mere five between them. Given the prevailing cuisine themes, the snub is not much of a surprise, but it does spotlight a perennial qualm about the list: it focuses on a relatively narrow tract of the restaurant universe.

The list’s most striking shortcoming remains its predictability, although, that misgiving rests largely in the top ten. Nine of the following forty entrants are debuts, with decent movement throughout. Still, given the millions of restaurants across the planet, there arguably should be more disparity from year to year, especially considering the selection process (806 chefs and insiders vote).

Maybe, like Babe Ruth, Wayne Gretzky, and Michael Jordan, El Bulli is just that good, but that doesn’t explain the rest of the list’s stagnancy. Regardless, barring a cataclysmic event, bet on El Bulli next year, too (sorry Fat Duck).

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