The World’s 50 Best Restaurants for 2015 Announced

Get your napkins ready
Art & Culture
The World’s 50 Best Restaurants for 2015 Announced

Get your napkins ready

Words: FLOOD Staff

header photo courtesy of El Celler de Can Roca

June 02, 2015

2015. El Celler press photo

You may want to fire up OpenTable in another tab. The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list for 2015—the definitive annual guide put out by Restaurant magazine—has been released. Catalan’s El Celler de Can Rona took the top prize, unseating Copenhagen’s Noma, which slipped to third. The two culinary powerhouses have traded the top spot every year since 2011, with El Celler getting the nod this year for their Terra Animada initiative, a “gastro-botanical” project aimed at cultivating and eventually reintroducing rare plant species into the food cycle.

Second prize was taken by Italy’s Osteria Francescana. Chef Massimo Bottura’s deconstructed Modenese cuisine was the focus of episode one of Netflix’s Chef’s Table, which showcases the culinary and personal stories that influence some of the world’s brightest chefs.

New York’s Eleven Madison Park, the highest-ranked American restaurant, slipped from fourth to fifth, while Chicago’s Alinea fell from ninth to twenty-sixth. Éric Ripert’s Manhattan seafood restaurant Le Bernardin moved up three spots to eighteenth. All told, five US restaurants placed in the top fifty.

20150601  © The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2015, sponsored by S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna, and onEdition Photography, the official photographers for 2015 Joan, El Celler de Can Roca, Josep, El Celler de Can Roca and Jordi, El Celler de Can Roca at The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, sponsored by S.Pellegrino and Acqua Panna. If you require a higher resolution image or you have any other onEdition photographic enquiries, please contact onEdition on 0845 900 2 900 or email info@onEdition.com This image © The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2015, sponsored by S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna, and onEdition Photography, the official photographers for 2015

Joan, Josep, and Jordi, El Celler de Can Roca at The World’s 50 Best Restaurants / photo © The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2015, sponsored by S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna, and onEdition Photography, the official photographers for 2015

As the New York Times reports, the list is not without controversy. Judges aren’t required to prove that they’ve eaten a meal at the restaurants they vote for, and the list’s sponsorships—which range from San Pellegrino to the governments of Peru and Singapore—make it vulnerable to conflicts of interest. William Drew, the head of the 50 Best organization, insists on the list’s integrity, saying “Neither the organizers, nor any of the sponsors, can vote or influence the voting or the results” in a statement released Monday.

If you want to check out El Celler, you’d better start saving your euros now; a meal at this year’s World’s Best Restaurant will set you back €300 per person.

(via The New York Times)