The World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards, considered the Oscars of the fine dining world, found their new owners after a one-year hiatus. Sponsored by S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna, Noma, one of the most famous names in the gastronomy world, left its mark on the event held in Antwerp, Belgium.
This year’s event featured restaurants from 26 countries on five continents, and René Redzepi’s restaurant Noma in Copenhagen, Denmark, achieved significant success by winning The World’s Best Restaurant 2021 and The Best Restaurant in Europe 2021 awards. Noma is accompanied by Geranium from Denmark in second place, and Asador Etxebarri from Atxondo, Spain in third place.
William Drew, Content Director at The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, said: “Noma has become arguably the most influential restaurants of its generation, setting new standards in research and ingredient sourcing, food development and presentation. It has become one of the most sought after dining venues by consumers all over the world and we are happy to announce it as this year’s number one. It’s also great to see eight new restaurants join and two re-entry after one of the toughest times the industry has ever seen. It is an honor for me to witness the resilience of so many restaurants that are on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list and that are not.”
Spain, USA and Italy draw attention
Spain and the US top The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list with six restaurants, and Spain has two restaurants in the top 10: Asador Etxebarri (3rd place) and Barcelona’s Disfrutar (5th). And also placed with Elkano (16th place) and Mugaritz (14th place) from Getaria. In the USA, New York Cosme ranks 22nd, San Francisco’s Benu 28th and SingleThread 37th. Italy is also successfully represented on the list, with four restaurants including Lido 84 (15th place), which won the Best New Entry award sponsored by Aspire Lifestyles.
South Africa made a significant splash with Wolfgat in 50th place winning the Best Restaurant in Africa. Among this year’s top 10 new entrants, The President from Hong Kong, who won the Highest Climber award, moved up 31 places to 10th place. Pujol of Mexico City was awarded the Best Restaurant in North America in 9th place. In Singapore, Odette climbed to 8th place and was awarded the Best Restaurant in Asia, and Frantzén in Stockholm moved up 15 places to 6th place.
Award-winning chefs
Basque grill master Victor Arguinzoniz has won the Estrella Damm Chefs’ Choice Award, voted by the world’s leading chefs and awarded to a chef who has had a significant impact on the culinary community. Pía León was named the World’s Best Female Chef, as well as the Best Restaurant in South America. French-born Dominique Crenn, co-owner and chef of Atelier Crenn in San Francisco, won the Icon Award.
Voting Process
The list, announced each year, is determined by the votes of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants Academy, which is made up of more than 1,000 people consisting of food writers and critics, chefs, restaurateurs and international cuisine experts.
Best of the Best
Those in the elite group of number one restaurants prove their importance and are deemed worthy of eternal honor as iconic dining venues in the Best of the Best hall of fame. Restaurants on this year’s Best of the Best list;
• El Bulli (2002, 2006-2009)
• The French Laundry (2003-2004)
• The Fat Duck (2005)
• Noma – original location (2010-2012, 2014)
• El Celler de Can Roca (2013, 2015)
• Osteria Francescana (2016, 2018)
• Eleven Madison Park (2017)
• Mirazur (2019)