Eleven Madison Park in New York has secured the No.1 spot in the 2017 list of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants. This year’s winners were revealed at an awards ceremony at the historic Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne.
No.1 Eleven Madison Park, New York, USA
In claiming the No.1 position on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list, Eleven Madison Park earns the dual titles of The World’s Best Restaurant and The Best Restaurant in North America. After debuting on the list at No.50 in 2010, Eleven Madison Park has hovered within the top 10 since 2012, rising to No.3 last year. Outstanding hospitality and exquisite food in an iconic setting in NYC (housed in an art deco building overlooking Madison Park) is what makes Eleven Madison Park so special. Co-owned by Will Guidara and Swiss-born cook Daniel Humm aim to ensure the customer experience is seamless from start to finish. Intrigued to sample the delights personally? They will be exclusively serving a new eleven-course retrospective menu highlighting some of the most significant dishes they have served over the last 11 years.
No.2 Osteria Francescana, Modena, Italy
Last year’s No.1, Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy, claims the No.2 position to retain its title as The Best Restaurant in Europe. Located along a cobbled street in Modena, Osteria Francescana sits at the hands of chef Massimo Bottura. He weaves narratives through his dishes, playing with history, tradition and experimenting with fare which are heavily influenced by art and jazz music. Courses include the revered Five Ages of Parmigiano Reggiano which leads the diner though the region’s esteemed cheese in different temperatures, tastes and textures.
No.3 El Celler de Can Roca, Girona, Spain
El Celler de Can Roca is the recipient of The Ferrari Trento Art of Hospitality Award. El Celler de Can Roca is a free-style restaurant, committed to the avant-garde, but still faithful to the memory of different generations of the family’s ancestors dedicated to feeding people. The restaurant is set in a country house, a hybrid of modernist and colonial styles built in 1911 by the architect Isidre Bosch i Bataller, standing just a few metres away from the family home. The restaurant’s commitment to cuisine and its link to academia champions the dialogue between the countryside and science. Their first Michelin star was awarded in 1995; the second in 2002 and the third in 2009.
No.4 Mirazur, Menton, France
At the foot of the mountains overlooking the sea, a stone’s throw from Italy, Mirazur enjoys an idyllic setting, spread over three levels on the hillside, surrounded by lush vegetation. The elegant, spacious and light dining room commands a panoramic view of the sea and the town of Menton through the floor to ceiling windows. The Mediterranean is muse to Mauro Colagreco’s imagination. Through his personal interpretation of ingredients and flavour combinations, he has forged a style of his own, absorbing his Italian-Argentinian cultural heritage and that of the chefs with whom he trained, he draws on culture from both sides of the border. Mauro invents colourful, pictorial dishes that play with textures and bold contrasts.
No. 5 Central, Lima, Peru
Central celebrates the biodiversity of Peru. Fresh produce and an inexhaustible curiosity to discover and integrate new ingredients into the menu bringing Peruvian cuisine to the forefront in the heart of the traditional district of Miraflores in Lima is Chef Virgilio Martinez’s aim. Virgilio is passionate about travelling and investigating ingredients that can bring even more wealth to the local cuisine. He also has an interdisciplinary team that complements each new “discovery” in a necessary context that seeks to transcend the strictly culinary and penetrate nutritional, biological, anthropological aspects. Central takes diners on a journey through every altitude, from below sea level, to above it, in 17 plus courses. The experience that Lima promises to offer guests is the exploration of the diverse Peruvian territory: ingredients, colours, stories and scenarios.
