The Spanish restaurant El Celler de Can Roca has been named the World’s Best Restaurant on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list announced in London on Monday. This year, Zuma Dubai tied with The Tasting Room at Le Quartier Francais (South Africa) at No 88, down from No 77 last year, while Mikla, a restaurant in Istanbul, came in at 96, making them the only two restaurants in the region among the top 100.
The list is compiled by nearly 1,000 international food experts for Britain's Restaurant magazine. Since the awards began in 2002, just five restaurants have been named the world's best: Noma (Denmark), El Bulli (Spain), The French Laundry (USA), The Fat Duck (Britain) and El Celler de Can Roca (Spain).
El Celler de Can Roca, No 2 on last year’s list, has dethroned Noma, a Denmark restaurant that has been No 1 four times in the past five years. Noma dropped to No 3 while chef Massimo Bottura’s Osteria Francescana (Italy) squeezed in at No 2. Foodies in the capital may remember Bottura’s dinner at Emirates Palace during Gourmet Abu Dhabi 2014, where his signature food was paired with an opera performance.
But the list does not come without controversy. This year, critics put up a petition on occupy50best.com (a nod to the Occupy Wall Street Movement) urging sponsors to stop supporting the World’s Best 50 list.
Among their objections: it is not known how judges are chosen, some of the judges are also chefs who make it in the top 50, there’s no criteria grid given to jury members, no justification is required for a judge’s top restaurant pick; no proof is required that a judge has eaten in a restaurant he or she votes for; and the list is not representative – half of this year’s top 50 restaurants are in Western Europe; one in Africa; and none in the Middle East.
“If we are told that there are 50 best restaurants in the world, we would, at least, like to know why,” read one comment on occupy50best.com.
Carlos de los Mozos, executive chef at Crowne Plaza Dubai, says he signed the petition.
“I don’t understand how we can believe [this] list can cover the best of millions of restaurants around the globe,” he says. “How you can say that a restaurant is better than another when they are not playing in the same league? How can someone say Zuma is better than a Lebanese restaurant here in Dubai? A real list does not compare a chef or restaurant with others; it just scores it independently as Michelin does with their one- to three-star rating.”
The manifesto on www.theworlds50best.com states: “Academy members must have eaten in the restaurants they nominate in the last 18 months and are asked to confirm this fact for each of their nominations. Academy members are not permitted to vote for restaurants they own or have a financial interest in. There are no criteria that a restaurant has to meet. Restaurants cannot apply to be on the list and cannot be nominated. Every restaurant in the world is eligible.
“What constitutes ‘best’ is left to the judgement of these trusted and well-travelled gourmets. There is no predetermined checklist of criteria. The results are a simple computation of votes. Given that this list is based on personal experiences, it can never be definitive, but we believe it is an honourable survey of current tastes and a credible indicator of the best places to eat around the globe.”
• Visit www.theworlds50best.com for the full list
sjohnson@thenational.ae
