The best restaurant in the world has only 12 tables.
Osteria Francescana, a three-Michelin-starred restaurant in Modena, Italy — with tasting menu dishes that range from "The crunchy part of the lasagna" to suckling pig — tops the The World's 50 Best Restaurants list for 2018. (It also won in 2016.)
The new ranking, released Tuesday, includes restaurants from 23 countries around the world.
(CNN) — If there's ever a bad night to eat out -- not including that time you ordered those mussels -- it's the one when all the planet's top chefs skip work to find out if their restaurants have finally been named the world's best.
This year, culinary masterminds from five continents gathered in the Spanish port city of Bilbao for an award ceremony to name the 50 best fine dining joints for 2018 and, most importantly, crown a champion.
For 2018, the top prize went to Italy's Osteria Francescana and head chef Massimo Bottura , whose dazzling and sometimes surreal reworkings of classic Italian recipes saw him return to the top spot he first held in 2016.
There were few other surprises in the top three of the World's 50 Best Restaurant Awards, with last year's third placers and 2015 winner El Celler de Can Roca , taking second place and France's Mirazur , fourth last year, take third.
Eleven Madison Park -- the 2017 winner which spent part of the year closed for renovations -- was bumped down to fourth.
"We built this together," Bottura told the packed auditorium of the Palacio Euskalduna in Bilbao, where many of his contemporaries were gathered. "I'm not going to disappoint you, I'm going to show the world that chefs in 2018 are much more than the sum of their recipes if we stay together. "
'Human workplaces'
l e v a r t
While European eateries continued to dominate the awards, known as the Oscars of the fine dining world, all five continents were represented, with Bangkok's Gaggan at five on the list and Lima's Central at six.
Also notable was the continuing domination of men at the top of the gastronomic game. The World's 50 Best Restaurants' prize for female chef of the year is often criticized for its shortcomings in addressing this.
This year's recipient, Clare Smyth of London's Core restaurant, took the opportunity to raise the issue while also speaking to wider concerns of welfare among overworked kitchen employees.
"I'm constantly being asked why we have a lack of female chefs, why we don't see more women represented at the top level ... and why don't we have more diversity," she said. "I don't have the answers."
She said the industry needed to create better working environments and make restaurants an equal and "more human workplace for both men and women."
"We must draw a line under this and make sure we clear a path for the next generation. I for one can't wait until we achieve equality and the debate moves on."
Other significant prizes included the Lifetime Achievement Award, which went to Peruvian chef Gastón Acurio of Astrid y Gastón . France's Cédric Grolet won Best Pastry Chef and Spain's Azurmendi took a prize for sustainability.
According to organizers, the results were compiled from an "independent" voting panel of 1,000 judges that were subject to adjudication.
The prize ceremony began with tributes to culinary legends who have passed in the preceding year. Among them Gualtiero Marchesi, the first Italian chef ever to receive three Michelin stars, and French "pope of gastronomes" Paul Bocuse.
Anthony Bourdain, the CNN presenter, writer and chef who often railed against the kind of fine dining establishments celebrated by the awards, was also remembered.
"His honesty, his determination and his stubborn truth telling changed our industry for the better," said William Drew, group editor of the World's 50 Best Restaurants.
The world's 50 best restaurants
4. Eleven Madison Park (New York City) *best restaurant in North America*
5. Gaggan (Bangkok) *best restaurant in Asia*
Massimo Bottura’s restaurant Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy has been named the world’s best restaurant at the 2018 World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards.
Bottura’s three-Michelin-starred establishment was followed in second place by El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, Spain, and by Mirazu in Menton, France, in third place.
Peruvian and Spanish restaurants were also well-represented in the top 10, with Central in Lima ranked sixth and Maido in Lima ranked seventh. The highest UK restaurant was The Clove Club, in 33rd place, while last year’s number one, Eleven Madison Park in New York, was knocked down to fourth spot.
The event, which was held this year at Palacio Euskalduna in Bilbao, Spain,...
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The World’s 50 Best Restaurant Awards took place last night in Bilbao, Spain, seeing top chefs fly in from all across the globe.
From Tokyo to New York, Mexico to Shanghai, industry leaders and masterminds gathered to attend three days of talks, events and feasting, culminating in the glitzy ceremony at Bilbao’s Euskalduna Palace.
Now in it’s sixteenth year, the awards, dubbed the ‘Oscars of the food world’, rank the world’s finest restaurants from 50 - 1 (with an extended list covering the 51-100 released in the run up) as well as highlighting global gastronomic trends via the #50besttalks in the preceding days.
Not surprisingly, sustainability was a huge topic on this year’s agenda, with chefs of Farm Africa: Joan Roca (El Celler de Can Roca, Spain), Gaggan Anand (Gaggan, Bangkok), Eneko Atxa (Azurmendi, Spain) discussing efforts to reduce poverty through sustainable agriculture, while New York’s Chef Dan Barber (Blue Hill at Stone Barns) took to the stage to give thought-provoking insight on how breeding vegetables to be tastier could be a way to reduce waste and encourage people away from meat-based diets, in order to be kinder to the environment.
Dan said: “In the last two decades the best chefs have turned fine dining on its head. We’re no longer serving steak and foie gras, we’re serving vegetables and foraged and fermented things. We’re about sense of place - that thing that can only come from that forest in that country.”
The globally recognised awards are judged by a panel of over 1000 food critics, chefs and industry experts and saw chef Massimo Bottura’s Osteria Francescana in Modena crowned number one, with last year’s champion, Daniel Humm’s Eleven Madison Park, coming off the top spot to land at number 3.
London’s Clove Club was the UK’s highest entry at 33, while James Lowe and John Ogier’s Lyle’s arrived as a new entry into the top 50 at number 38. Both restaurants champion modern British cuisine.
London’s own Clare Smyth of Core restaurant was crowned ‘Best Female Chef’ - the award not being without its controversy, having received substantial criticism for its position of separating the sexes.
As Clare herself said: “The role of chef is not gender specific.” Clare delivered a short but powerful speech on gender equality and what we need to do to make kitchens a more welcoming environment to women. She added: We all must encourage people from all backgrounds to achieve success. We must be more supportive, tolerant, understanding, kind. We must make a conscious effort to remove barriers and support a healthy gender balance to make a more workplace for both men and women.”
The awards have in the past received some criticism for a lack of diversity across different areas, from gender and racial diversity, to price points of the winning restaurants. It seems that this year some efforts have been made to address this, however there’s still some way to go.
All in the all, the awards were a joyous celebration of the brilliant culinary talents all across the globe, and highlighted some of the great progress being made in efforts of sustainability and environmental issues. A huge congratulations to all the winners. Until 2019!
The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2018: the full list of winners
1. Osteria Francescana, Modena, Italy
2. El Celler de Can Roca, Girona, Spain
3. Mirazur, Menton, France
4. Eleven Madison Park, New York, USA
5. Gaggan, Bangkok, Thailand
6. Central, Lima, Peru
7. Maido, Lima, Peru
8. Arpège, Paris, France
9. Mugaritz, San Sebastián, Spain
10. Asador Etxebarri, Axpe, Spain
11. Quintonil, Mexico City, Mexico
12. Blue Hill at Stone Barns, Pocatino Hills, New York, USA
13. Pujol, Mexico City, Mexico
14. Steirereck, Vienna, Austria
15. White Rabbit, Moscow, Russia
16. Piazza Duomo, Alba, Italy
17. Den, Tokyo, Japan
18. Disfrutar, Barcelona, Spain
19. Geranium, Copenhagen, Denmark
20. Attica, Melbourne, Australia
21. Alain Ducasse au Plaza Athénée, Paris, France
22. Narisawa, Tokyo, Japan
23. Le Calandre, Rubano, Italy
24. Ultraviolet by Paul Pairet, Shanghai, China
25. Cosme, New York, USA
26. Le Bernardin, New York, USA
27. Boragó, Santiago, Chile
28. Odette, Singapore
29. Alléno Paris au Pavillon Ledoyen, Paris, France
30. D.O.M., São Paulo, Brazil
31. Arzak, San Sebastián, Spain
32. Tickets, Barcelona, Spain
33. The Clove Club, London, UK
34. Alinea, Chicago, USA
35. Maaemo, Oslo, Norway
36. Reale, Castel Di Sangro, Italy
37. Restaurant Tim Raue, Berlin, Germany
38. Lyle's, London, UK
39. Astrid y Gastón, Lima, Peru
40. Septime, Paris, France
41. Nihonryori RyuGin, Tokyo, Japan
42. The Ledbury, London, UK
43. Azurmendi, Larrabetzu, Spain
44. Mikla, Istanbul, Turkey
45. Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, London, UK
46. Saison, San Francisco, USA
47. Schloss Schauenstein, Fürstenau, Switzerland
48. Hiša Franko, Kobarid, Slovenia
49. Nahm, Bangkok, Thailand
50. The Test Kitchen, Cape Town, South Africa
Abbie Moulton was a guest of The Dalmore, The Official Whisky Partner to the World's 50 Best Restaurants.
Abbie is ES Lifestyle's food and drinks columnist, follow her @abbiemoulton.
