San Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants
Wednesday 04 May 2011
Last week saw the announcement of the San Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2011. What is quite extraordinary is not the fact that Rene Redzepi’s ‘Noma’, the much lauded restaurant in Copenhagen, has been voted No. 1 Restaurant in the World for the second year running, but the success of the whole San Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurant concept which started out as a feature in the U.K.’s ‘Restaurant Magazine in 2002. Disarmingly simple, the best ideas always are, this has become the real Oscars of the food world and must have those at Michelin HQ sharpening their knives! Chefs who for years desired nothing more than the coveted Michelin Star outside their door, of which there are thousands and thousands World wide, are now vying to be on the select list of 50, even the bottom of it will suffice, and will see people flying in from all over the world to dine in their restaurant.
Restaurant Magazine had been set up as a youthful industry magazine aimed at chefs and restaurateurs in the U.K. but the initial ‘World’s 50 Best in 2002 sparked an interest globally which has really only taken off stratospherically in the past year. In its early years the World’s 50 Best list was dominated by European restaurants, many being in the U.K. but now they say “the way in which the list is created has changed to reflect shifting trends, and in a quest to make it as fair and globally representative as possible.”
There is no strict stifling criteria for the San Pellegrino World’s 50 Best as with Michelin, those on the list are voted there by the World’s 50 Best Restaurants Academy, an influential group of over 800 international leaders in the restaurant industry made up of food critics, chefs, restaurateurs, and gastronomes. There are 27 separate regions around the world with each region having its own panel of 31 members, each of whom has seven votes. Of the seven votes at least three must be used to recognize restaurants outside of their region, and at least 10 panellists from each region change each year. Voters must also have eaten in the restaurant they nominate within the past 18 months – clearly a very important factor and not always the case as I have seen on occasion on judging panels!
Between 2002 and 2009 the 1st and 2nd places on the SP World’s 50 Best alternated between Ferran Adria’s ‘El Bulli’ Restaurant in Spain and Heston Blumenthal’s ‘Fat Duck’ in Bray in Berkshire. You can only imagine not just the success, but the pressures too, of being labeled No. 1 Restaurant in the world. El Bulli had something like close to 1m people applying each year for seats at Adria’s table – the restaurant only seated 50 and opened for six months of the year. However, having achieved the pinnacle of his career, and reputedly saying that “you could only go so far with new ideas”, he announced he was in fact closing El Bulli restaurant this coming July, but setting up a Foundation of Education on the site. He travels a lot now, promotes his books and gives lectures, and will be concentrating on enjoying himself a bit more. He has also opened ‘Inopia Classic Bar’, a cocktail bar with adjoining tapas bar, in Barcelona with his younger brother, Albert, who was pastry chef with him in El Bulli. Perhaps too it is not nice to feel the wolves snapping at your feet and it is difficult to be No. 1 forever – he was deposed in 2010 by Noma whilst The Fat Duck slipped to No. 3 – although I think the man just worked hard enough for long enough and wanted a little time in a sun with a few new fun challenges.
This year 2011, Noma is again at the top of the pile with two Spanish high flyers, El Celler De Can Roca in Girona, and Mugaritz near San Sebastian, in 2nd and 3rd places. Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy, is No. 4 whilst Blumenthal’s Fat Duck has slipped to No. 5 An interesting one is L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon which is up 15 places to No. 14 – it had slipped 11 places in 2010. The Ledbury in London is a new entry at No. 34 – a small restaurant run by Brett Graham in Notting Hill - whilst Thomas Keller’s much revered French Laundry in California slid from No 32 last year over the top 50 radar to No. 56 this year. Interestingly too, San Sebastian has more Michelin Stars per capita than anywhere else in the world, attributed to the influences of Juan Mari Arzak of the eponymous Arzak restaurant (No 8), who also trained Andoni Luis Aduriz of Mugaritz the new No. 3 – I know where I am taking a trip to this year! The inaugural Veuve Clicquot World’s Best Female Chef was voted as 3 Michelin Star French Chef Anne Sophie Pic of Maison Pic in Valence, south of Lyon, (No 67 on the continuation ‘51 – 100’) list which kind of emphasises it is a very male dominated world! No mention of Michelin starred Angela Hartnett, the very well known chef and long time professional side kick of Gordon Ramsey, who ran the restaurant in the Connaught Hotel before opening her own Murano Restaurant in Mayfair.
Those of you watching Masterchef recently will have seen the contestants experimenting with molecular gastronomy in the kitchens of Casino de Madrid in what looked like a mad scientists laboratory. This is the style of cookery that is rocketing these restaurants to the top of the list – its all about art and creation on a plate – you might get what looks like a mandarin orange on a plate but, hey ho, in an almost Paul Daniels world you will discover it is in fact pate or a pig’s head or some such! Noma is also all about foraging and nature. Redzepi is not just an amazing chef, I guess this is why he has such a devoted team around him, who not only cook but serve and clean up, he is also totally caring and into their wellbeing as a whole.
We have some very talented people here event though many of the younger chefs have had unfortunately to leave Ireland, but on the other hand they are getting mind blowing experiences abroad. In fact we have two young Irish people working in Noma – Trevor Moran from Stillorgan and Louise Bannon from Greystones – about whom I wrote over a year ago. Louise is the pastry chef at Noma a hugely talented girl but also with a very impressive pedigree behind her including time with Heston Blumenthal at The Fat Duck, Tom Aiken’s in London, Thornton’s in Dublin and laterally, before joining Noma, at the erstwhile Mint.
We are not at the races. We are bundled together with the U.K. in the assessments. Jay Rayner, restaurant critic of the Observer newspaper, is Chair of the U.K. & Irish panel and I contacted Restaurant Magazine to see who was on the panel voicing opinions for us Paddies, who would be familiar with the Irish dining scene. William Drew, Editor of Restaurant Magazine, told me that Rachel Allen was on the panel – which with respect to Rachel is a very small percentage vote out of a panel of 31 people – the rest are all U.K. based - hopefully we will have a higher representation next year.
THIS ARTICLE WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE SUNDAY INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY 1ST MAY 2011.