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The World’s Best Restaurants

The S. Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants Awards is considered by some to be a benchmark for fine dining. Its winners are chosen by prominent food writers, critics, publishers and the great and the good of the food industry. Although the awards have been running since 2002 there has been no comprehensive guide to the winning restaurants. This volume addresses that shortcoming.

Although The S. Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants Awards lists, as it says, the 50 best, there are a full one hundred restaurants included in this directory. There are the 50 runners up who should also be considered as not too shabby. This is an award covering the whole world so to even be mentioned is an accolade in itself.

The Fat Duck in Bray, UK is number two in the pecking order. Heston Blumenthal is head chef along with Ashley Palmer-Watts. The joy of this book is that there is a whole lot of fascinating information. Did you know, dear reader, that Heston was once a debt collector while he was teaching himself to cook? It’s good to read about personal success through sheer hard work and passion. It’s inspiring!

Each of the top 50 restaurants has a biography of the chef and enough of an insight into the particulars of the restaurant to enable you to judge whether it might be just the spot when a special meal is what’s wanted. You’ll already know that the restaurants are of a universally high standard but you need to know about the chef’s culinary philosophy and style.

There is a Lifetime Achievement Award each year and the winner for 2008 is Gualtiero Marchesi who is a handsome 78 year old restaurateur who has been the recipient of many honours including being a Knight of the Italian Republic. Previous winners are: 2005 the great Paul Bocuse, 2006 Albert and Michel Roux, and 2007 Alice Waters who has been a huge influence on the culinary landscape of America.

This is an amazing read. If you love fine food you’ll find it utterly absorbing. Each chef has devoted himself to the pursuit of excellence and has, in some cases, overcome obstacles that would have thwarted lesser mortals. The World’s Best Restaurants is informative, well written and a great showcase for exceptional achievement.

The World’s Best Restaurants
Authors: Various
Published by: Think Books (Pan Macmillan)
Price: £20.00
ISBN 978-1-84525-057-7