[title]
For almost two decades, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants have been decided each year by The World’s 50 Best Restaurants Academy, a panel of over 1,000 “culinary experts” who, this edition, come from 28 regions all over the globe. After a pause in 2020 due to the pandemic, the consortium announced its top honors for 2021 at an event in Antwerp today, Tuesday, October 5.
In NYC, Le Bernardin is number 44 this year (down from 36 in 2019), and Atomix joined the short list at number 43 after narrowly making it to the extended version at number 119 last edition. Cosme moved up one spot to 22. The number one restaurant is Noma in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The anonymous voting body is comprised almost equally by chefs and restaurateurs, food writers and “well-traveled gourmets,” according to the World’s 50 Best site. Each confidentially proposes 10 restaurants that they are required to have visited at least once in the past 18 months. (In New York City, mandatory citywide restaurant shutdowns began 19 months ago.)
In an effort to mitigate travel restrictions and other pandemic-related dining and ranking roadblocks, this year’s list took into account selections submitted in January of 2020, before that year’s winners were determined, followed by what organizers call a “voting refresh” conducted this past March. Previous number one restaurants, like Eleven Madison Park, are ineligible.
The top honor last went to Menton, France’s Mirazur in 2019.