Osteria Francescana, a restaurant in Modena, Italy that serves innovative and artful Italian food, was named the best restaurant in the world on Monday.
This is the second time that the restaurant, led by Chef Massimo Bottura, has made the top of the annual World’s 50 Best Restaurants list, chosen by the international organization of the same name.
El Celler de Can Roca, serving traditional Catalonian food by chefs and brothers Joan, Josep, and Jordi Roca in Girona, Spain, was the runner up for best restaurant in the world. In third place was Mirazur, which serves French-Riviera-inspired food under Chef Mauro Colagreco, in Menton, France.
All best restaurant winners were published and tagged on The World’s 50 Best’s Twitter page.
It’s finally here – Feast your eyes on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2018 list. #Worlds50Best pic.twitter.com/CaQkVUWyIt
— The World's 50 Best (@TheWorlds50Best) June 20, 2018
In 2017, Eleven Madison Park in New York City reigned supreme as the best restaurant in the world, followed by Osteria Francescana, and El Celler de Can Roca.
SingleThread, a farm-to-table restaurant focusing on preserving the flavors of in-season produce grown on the restaurant’s farm, won the 2018 Miele One to Watch Award for up-and-coming restaurants that will likely make the top 50 in the coming years (it placed 91st overall this time around). The restaurant, farm, and inn in Healdsburg, Calif., is run by married couple Katina and Kyle Connaughton.
The Chefs’ Choice Award this year went to Dan Barber, the chef and co-owner of Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns (No. 12) in New York City and Westchester County, N.Y., respectively. This award is given to the chef with the most votes from his or her peers.
2018’s Best Pastry Chef went to Cédric Grolet of Paris’ Meurice. Most Sustainable Restaurant Award went to Azurmendi in Larrabetzu, Spain and the Art of Hospitality Award, honoring outstanding service and front-of-house teams, went to Geranium in Copenhagen. At No. 18, Disfrutar of Barcelona received the Highest New Entry Award for 2018. Peru’s Gaston Acurio won the Diner’s Club Lifetime Achievement Award.
The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list is not known for its gender parity. Last year, only three of the top 50 restaurants in the world had women at the helm, and all of them ran the kitchen alongside a man.
Controversially, a Best Female Chef award is given each year. This year’s recipient was Clare Smyth, owner of Core by Clare Smyth, and the first and only woman chef to run a restaurant with three Michelin-stars in the U.K. Her restaurant did not crack the top 100 this year.
In her acceptance speech for Best Female Chef, Smyth said she doesn’t know why there aren’t more women in the industry, but that it is necessary to remove barriers to “make a more human workplace for both men and women.”
The World’s 50 Best Restaurants also lacks geographic diversity. According to Eater’s data from 2016, more than 50% of the restaurants were European. This year, all of the top three restaurants in the world were European.
In 2017, the best restaurants in the world list included no restaurants in Africa, the Middle East, or India.
This year, awards were given to The Test Kitchen (No. 50) for Best Restaurant in Africa, Central (No. 6) for Best Restaurant in South America, Gaggan (No. 5) for Best Restaurant in Asia, Eleven Madison Park (No. 4) for Best Restaurant in North America, and Attica (No. 20) for Best Restaurant in Australasia.
