The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2018: Italy at the top

Massimo Bottura, chef and core of the three Michelin stars Osteria Francescana in Modena, has returned to the highest step on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2018, universally recognized as the world’s most influential ranking, on stage last night at the Palacio Euskalduna in Bilbao. Right behind Bottura, in second place, the Roca brothers and their El Celler de Can Roca, who for years had been at the top of world’s restaurants, followed by Mauro Colagreco, in the kitchen of Mirazur, in Menton, France, just a handful of kilometers from the Italian border, counting only two Michelin stars, though in the top three. In one fell swoop, Eleven Madison Park lost both the record and the top three spots, landing at spot 4. Bottura is not the only chef to hold up the exceptional state of Italian haute cuisine (in the year of Italian food in the world, ed.), as Enrico Crippa of Piazza Duomo in Alba has been confirmed in the upper numbers and has taken position number 16, one spot below last year, while the Alajmos of Le Calandre di Rubano, have risen from spot 29 to 23, and Niko Romito of Il Reale di Castel di Sangro, has gone up from position 43 to 36. And then there is the only three-star Michelin Italian restaurant abroad, 8 1/2 Otto and Mezzo Bombana of Chef Umberto Bombana, in Hong Kong, at 93. In the 17 editions of the ranking, the Catalans climbed to the highest peak 7 times (five times El Bulli, in 2002, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 and twice El Celler de Can Roca, in 2013 and 2015), 4 times the Danes (all to Noma in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014), 3 times the Americans (The French Laundry in 2003 and 2004 and Eleven Madison Park in 2017), twice the Italians (Osteria Francescana in 2016 and 2018 ) and once the British (Fat Duck in 2005). Every year, then, there are special prizes, and one of the most important is “The Ferrari Trento Art of Hospitality Award”, which the Trentodoc brand gave to the hall of the Geranium in Copenhagen of Chef Rasmus Kofoed, at number19 on the ranking. The chefs chose for the “Chefs’ Choice Award” Dan Barber, of Blue Hill at Stone Barns in New York. Clayre Smyth, chef of Core by Clayre Smyth was awarded the “World’s Best Female Chef”, while the Peruvian Chef Gaston Acurio received the “Lifetime Achievement Award”.