At an event held in Valencia, Spain, Central in the city of Lima was today voted the best restaurant in the world by 1,080 food industry professionals in the annual World 50 Best Restaurants event.
Central, written by chefs Virgilio Martinez and Pía Léon, won the Disfrutar of Barcelona and brought the main prize to South America following the recent achievements of Copenhagen with Noma, in 2021, and Geranium, in 2022.
Gustavo Vivanco
Daniel Silva
Copenhagen only appeared once in the top 50 this year, with Alchemist at No. 5, which is characterized by a long feed that is presented in what sounds like a deep picture display.
Courtesy of Alchemist
Spanish restaurants had a strong showing on the list, including the establishment of Valencia’s Restaurante Ricard Camarina at No. 96, and the addition of chef Albert Adria’s Enigma at No. 82. Since Enigma was opened for the first time in 2016, with the idea of taking food on a culinary journey between the futuristic kitchens that serve oysters in Iberico pork fat and barnacles with barnacle juice, they renew themselves repeatedly in the COVID-19, which is now fixed on the season . on the ground. Although the crown of the best tapas in the country belongs to Disfrutar of Barcelona, goes it at number 1. 3 last year and today it moved one place closer to perfection. All perfection was achieved by chef Antoni Luis Arduiz who received the Icon Award for his lifetime of work at San Sebastian’s Mugaritz and Madrid’s Diverxo. The latter restaurant is at no. 3 in the world, and in house sommelier Miguel Angel Millan received the Best Sommelier in the World award.
Other notables on this year’s full list include Mauro Colagreco’s Ceto, which opened two years ago at the new Maybourne Riviera in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France, east of Monaco. Colagreco’s Le Mirazur, near Menton, took the top spot on the list in 2019. Not every chef wants to be forced to climb the list again with a new idea, but Colagreco tells us. Travel + Leisure he was eager to protest.
“It was very important for me to express a different vision of good food, and to highlight a new way of cooking fish and pay respect to the Mediterranean Sea,” he says. they will be given such honor after two years. When we decided to create Ceto, it was risky because of the proximity of the two restaurants, but Ceto is a very different concept from Mirazur even though it shares the same terroir.”
Ceto is one of the few restaurants on this list, in addition to the new place at No. 36, Cezanne, at the Four Seasons Tokyo in Marunouchi; their inclusion today may foreshadow what appears in the first list of the World’s 50 Best Hotels, which will be revealed later this year in London. As well as the appearance this week of the famous chef Alain Ducasse, who in the days leading up to the 50th World Champion event this year, joined the great chef, Jean-Philippe Bondet for a collaborative dinner at La Salita in Valencia. The pair represent, among other things, their new collaborative restaurant in London’s newly revamped The Dorchester.
Of course, there are plenty of places on the World’s Top 50 list of restaurants that defy the usual trappings of old-school white-knuckled food, and no city better represents the no-frills than Berlin. Here, the goals of restaurants like the eight-seat Ernst, which is at No. 55, and Nobelhart & Schmutzig, at No. 45, focuses all of their efforts on the game-changing combination of lobster to lard.
At Nobelhart, the community dining counter is manned by a player while owner Billy Wagner is comfortable listening to all the albums of his choice while offering piles of old books for customers to peruse between good night’s dinners. (That means chef Micha Schafer’s lard schnitzel, from pigs fed milk on a nearby family farm, and accompanied by a spread made with a lot of lard.) There’s also an inch-long wine list to mess with, one of the charms. that lo-fi vibe that makes a mature non-phone-friendly restaurant seem out of place.
“The ultimate luxury these days is the time and ability to enjoy real technology without distraction. This is why we have decided to ban photos and videos inside the restaurant,” Wagner explains to T+L, explaining that he got the idea from Berlin’s nightlife where banning phones and photos continues to be implemented in places like the famous Berghain.
The most ambitious American star on the list was Tatiana by Kwame Onwuachi, who opened at the end of last year at Lincoln Center in New York and has already received three stars from. The New York Times. Onwuachi received a special award for One To Watch, for his series showcasing the flavors of Onwuachi’s childhood in the Bronx. It features a misguided interpretation of dishes such as Hot Pockets, here filled with pepperoni cacciatore and smoked mozzarella, and the Bodega Special, a dessert inspired by Little Debbie brownies and donuts.
Last year’s winners were announced in London after the host city was switched from Moscow, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Last March, the 50 Best in the World confirmed that no Russian restaurant would qualify for the list. Two of the country’s most popular restaurants have been on the rise in recent years. (In 2021, Vladimir Mukhin’s Saint Rabbit was ranked 25th, and twins Ivan and Sergey Berezutsky’s Twins Garden ranked 30th.)
And while Dubai has become a haven for Western chefs looking to open satellite restaurants and reach out to expats, this year’s list also shows that there are plenty of opportunities today for Eastern chefs who want to succeed there.
Earlier this year, the list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants in the Middle East and North Africa had four Dubai restaurants in the top five. The top two places went to Syrian Orfali Bros. Bistro at Wasl 51 Mall, a non-alcoholic alternative to the new indie incubator in Jumeirah, and Indian chef Himanshu Saini’s Tresind Studio, in Palm Jumeirah, where he packs food into the dining room as he goes through the flavors of the subcontinent, from the lush greenery shit to ghee-roasted crab. This year, Orfali Bros entered the national division at No. 46 and Tresind Studio at No. 11, making it the top restaurant in the Middle East on this year’s list.
You can find the full list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants here.
