Top 50 Restaurants In The World? How About Top 50 Gastrotourist Destinations?

Matt Rodbard•

Yesterday in London the results for the annual World's 50 Best Restaurants awards (or is it a competition? Survey? Listicle to end all listicles? Some rich guy's favorite canteens?) was released during a 30-minute ceremony that was attended by the winners (and some losers) and live-streamed to the world. Here are the results, which were light on drama — the top two spots, El Celler de Can Roca and Noma, flip-flopped from 2013 — and to some bigs in the food media world, a little perplexing. New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells tweeted this morning:

Wells' tweet leads to a story written by Marina O'Loughlin, restaurant critic of the Guardian Weekend in London. It is called World's 50 best restaurants list: a menu of predictable names for the food bores and as the click-worthy title suggests, the critic is not really feeling the results, or the Awards at that. Some highlights:

As the predictable names scroll by on Twitter – there's nothing gaspworthy, nothing revelatory – I'm stifling a yawn. Yes, the outlandishly remote Faviken is up 15 places; perhaps they organised a charabanc. But people love a list, even if it's an unscientific, stick-a-finger-in-the-air job.

Also:

For food bores who like to tick off restaurants on a joyless list, it's a magnificent circle jerk. But for the normal restaurant-goer, these hyperbolic junkets just feed the fear of missing out and raise expectations – look, Mum, I'm in the best restaurant in the world – that are forever destined to be dashed.

Zing-a-ding. More interestingly, longtime Chicago food writer and TV personality Steve Dolinksy offers a little inside information about the voting process. Dolinsky represents a third of the American judging chairs, joined by Los Angles Times critic S. Irene Virbila and Mitchell Davis of the James Beard Foundation (who gives out his own awards Monday night). Each chair is responsible for 30 judges — consisting of journalists, chefs and big-time restaurant fans — representing their section of the United States, which is split vertically (East, Central, West). Dolinsky, a clairvoyant and seasoned voice with over 20 years of experience, lays out the voting process in very simple, if not a bit hedgy, language:

Panelists must have dined at the restaurants they vote for at some point in the 18 months before voting, although we don't require proof of receipt. Judges have to rank seven restaurants in order of preference, including at least three outside of their geographical region.

So the 30 judges from Dolinsky's region must submit a list of 7 names, with at least 3 falling outside the designated region — though all could potentially fall outside the region? Meaning the Detroit-based judge (a chef, travel writer or as Dolinsky calls, a "gastronaut") who recently travelled through the Basque region, ripping through El Celler de Can Roca, Mugaritz and Asador Etxebarri, are almost obligated to consider these restaurants? It's an interesting dynamic. Even the most seasoned journalist (or skeptical gastronome) will drop the cloak of objectivity when entering the dining room of Andoni Luis Aduriz or Rene Redzepi, both magical and time-stopping spaces to simply visit (leaving the food out of the conversation). Thus, if they are a busy chef or freelance writer, with presumably finite means and travel time, and their two overseas trips in the 18-month period are to Spain or Singapore (which landed two on the list), wouldn't they be obligated to include one, if not the four places visited?

On paper, this methodology points to the list being a collection of the top 50 food destinations (as in, not necessarily top restaurants). The stars align in places like Northern Spain and Copenhagen — where natural beauty, intriguing producers and central locality (on the globe) — are packaged with some pretty top-notch — and talked-about — restaurants. Wouldn't any food writer (or chef or gastrotourist) want to book a ticket? And then, cast a vote.

No list is perfect — Food Republic just published a list of the 9 important people in American wine, which will likely stir things up. Congrats to René and the Roca brothers and many, many others, as Francis Lam wisely pointed out yesterday:

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