Italy's Osteria Francescana crowned world's best restaurant again
BILBAO - AFP
Italy's Osteria Francescana was crowned the world's best restaurant for the second time on June 19 at an awards ceremony put on by British trade magazine Restaurant, beating out top eateries in Spain and France.
Run by chef Massimo Bottura, the restaurant in Modena, Italy pipped last year's winner, New York's "Eleven Madison Park," in the World's 50 Best Restaurants awards, after first taking the honor in 2016. It is the only Italian establishment to have won the annual accolade.
"This is amazing, this is something we built all together," Bottura told the awards ceremony held in Bilbao in Spain's northern Basque Country, famous for its avant-garde haute cuisine.
The top restaurants list's organizers praised "Bottura's contemporary cuisine, which challenges and reinvents Italian culinary tradition while make use of the finest produce from the Emilia-Romagna region."
Bottura opened Osteria Francescana in 1995 after spending time in New York and Monaco.
Spain's El Celler de Can Roca, which took the top honor in 2013 and 2015, came in second while third place went to Mirazur in southern France.
Restaurant magazine, owned by William Reed Media, launched the awards in 2002 and they are now as coveted by restaurants as Michelin stars, although the methodology used to select the best restaurants has faced criticism, especially from several French chefs who say it remains unclear.
There are no criteria for putting a restaurant on the list, which is based on an anonymous poll of more than 1,000 chefs, restaurant owners, food critics and other industry insiders from around the world.
Each member gets 10 votes and at least four of those votes have to go to restaurants outside their region.
The top 10 included two Peruvian restaurants, "Central" which slipped to number six from fifth place last year, and "Maido" which climbed to number seven from eighth place.
The only Asian restaurant in the top 10 was Bangkok's "Gaggan," whose owner-chef Gaggan Anand has won praise for his modern spin on his native Indian cuisine.