René Redzepi, the chef of the Best Restaurant of 2012
That means that Denmark continues to set the standard in eating well and that its credo (local product, sustainable cuisine, kilometer 0, clear flavours, simple pleasures, wood and nudity) will be the credo of all the cooks who not so long ago dreamed of a stage at elBulli.
The ** Celler de Can Roca ** is still subscribed to the second position and Andoni Luis Aduriz from Mugaritz to third. Aduriz , by the way, has also been named as the best chef in the world -Chef's Choice Award- chosen by the rest of the chefs (there is nothing). We can not complain . What happens is that all of us who know -love- the Roca family demanded the gold. And we won't stop until Joan, Pitu and Jordi return to Girona with an award that -we know- does not take away their sleep. And the fact is that I bet a gin and tonic at Dickens that Joan was the cook most unrelated to the award at the gala held at London City Hall. And we like that. We like it a lot.
More news? My admired ** Quique Dacosta rises to 40 ** and Víctor Arguinzóniz's Asador Etxebarri to 31. And little more to say. Everything remains the same. "Life goes on" , Julio sang it with his voice from a half-made bed and life goes on the same in some increasingly influential awards. Why? What about 50 Best Restaurants?
Let's recap: every spring, the magazine The Restaurant Magazine dictates sentence in what is already the most important gastronomic publication **(Michelin, are you there?) ** the Oscars of foodies. And as in the Oscars, it is the industry itself that cooks it and eats it (foodie humor, JA) precisely because they themselves are judge and party. They give them and they receive them. Specifically, 837 professionals from around the world, divided between great chefs, restaurant owners and gastronomic journalists.
Is the list fair?
a fuck The list is terribly unfair and absurd even beyond the subjectivity of the respectable or the juggling of the press with the chefs, why? Because in the Film Academy those who vote at least see the selected films, but in 50 Best the professionals invited to vote do not have to eat in the 50 restaurants.
An example: if Tourism of Denmark organizes a trip to invite those gastronomic journalists and restoration professionals to discover Copenhagen and, incidentally, discover the restaurant, it is very likely that it will appear among their chosen ones. For the simple reason that they have tried it. Add two and two.
But do we still like it?
We love. And it is that we gastropirates love lists, rankings, in and out. That it is unfair, we already know, but it is also unpredictable and "hot", as stated Ferran Adria , the true defender of 50 Best: “More than trends, this list measures the ability of chefs to influence”.
Yes, tomorrow we will all say that in reality these awards do not matter, that the important thing is the client, the hard work and all the homily of the resigned shift. Whatever they want. But here we will be next year, demanding that El Celler de Can Roca be named -at last- the best restaurant in the world.
The full list of **The World´s 50 Best Restaurants,** here. **
Andoni Luis Aduriz, Best Chef in the World 2012