Shock as El Bulli is dethroned as the World’s Best Restaurant

It’s all change at El Bulli, Spain’s most influential and innovative restaurant. Not only has Head Chef, Ferrán Adria announced that his establishment is due to close from 2012 to 2014 to encourage the influx of new ideas before reopening as a Haute Cuisine Study Centre, but El Bulli has also lost its throne as the world’s best.

That honour has now been bestowed on René Redzepi’s Noma in Copenhagen, Denmark, with El Bulli resting in the runner-up position, just ahead of Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck at Bray, U.K.

The world’s top food critics are clearly enjoying a love affair with Spanish cuisine, since this year’s San Pellegrino World’s Best 50 Restaurants features no less than four Spanish restaurants in its Top 10, namely El Bulli, Mugaritz in Rentería, Guipúzcoa, El Celier de Can Roca in Gerona and Arzak in San Sebastián. Surprisingly Italian restaurants feature only once in the form of Massimo Bottura’s La Francescana in Modena.

America, frequently ridiculed for its population’s addiction to McDonald’s fast-food meals, has markedly raised its game with three Top 10 entries: Alinea in Chicago, Daniel’s in New York, while Per Se, Thomas Keller’s New York establishment, rounds off the list.

Perhaps the biggest shock of all – bigger even than El Bulli’s small tumble from grace – is that there is not one French restaurant in the Top 10. Heading the Gallic contingent is Paris’s Le Chateaubriand, ironically run by its Basque Chef-Patron Iñaki Aizpitarte. One must scroll down to number 13 before one encounters Pierre Gagnaire, the first French establishment headed by a French chef (after whom it is named). Doubtless Gagnaire’s many fans would question the placing of this modern culinary legend so far down the list, but there is no denying the expertise of the panel of judges fielded by the influential Restaurant Magazine.

If you’re tempted to try any of these restaurants yourself please be warned – there is bound to be a very long waiting lists, so potential guests will have to book months in advance!

www.theworlds50best.com

New post on at Thursday, 6 May, 2010, 9:10 am and is archived in Food and drink, Lifestyle, Luxury, People, Places of Interest. Subscribe to answers with RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.