On the 2012 World’s 50 Best Restaurants List

The 2012 edition of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants List was released at the end of April (see www.theworlds50best.com/awards/1-50-winners/).  The annual list was first published by the Restaurant Magazine in the U.K. in 2002 and has since been expanded to 100 despite its name.  

There is no doubt that the restaurants on the list are good.  Noma (#1) deserves to be congratulated for popularizing the foraged food trend.  But one may argue whether these 100 restaurants are really the best (I doubt), and whether their ranking makes sense (I doubt that as well).  Let me illustrate with a few observations.

The U.S. has the most number of restaurants on the list: 8 of the Best 50 and 14 of the Best 100.   On the other hand, Japan has only two.  This is curious given Japan has been awarded more Michelin 3 stars than any other country in the world.  So much is clear: the Best 50 List panelists and the Michelin inspectors use different methodologies.  

Another observation: Thomas Keller has two restaurants on the list.  His flagship, The French Laundry, is ranked #43 while its sibling, Per Se in NYC, is #6.  The two serve similar, if not identical, dishes.  They do have different ambience – Big Apple chic versus rustic wine country charm.  Can that explain the huge difference in their ranking?  

The Restaurant Magazine states that it has no hand in the making of the list.  It just tallies up the entries of 837 panelists from around the world.  It further details the rules which seem fair and objective.  But the Devil is in the details.  

For 2012, the world was divided up into 27 regions to “fairly represent the global restaurant scene at the current time”. One country, the U.S., has three of the 27 regions (that is 11%).  That explains the high number of U.S. restaurants on the list. 

Asian cuisines are heavily under-represented.  Only six of the Best 100 serves “Asian” food if one includes teppan-yaki, which is an U.S. invention, and non-Asian operations.  The six are #28 Ryugin (Japanese, Tokyo), #39 Waku Ghin (teppan-yaki, Singapore), #50 Nahm (Thai, Bangkok, Australian owner/chef), #84 Bukhara (Indian, New Delhi), #93 Lung King Heen (Cantonese, Hong Kong) and #100 Hakkasan Mayfair (Chinese, London, Abu Dhabi owner).  In his own words, David Chang’s #37 Momofuku Ssam Bar and #79 Momofuku Ko are not Asian.  China has six restaurants on the list, and five of them are western.  Most likely this is because all but one of the 27 regional chairpersons were westerners, and they influenced the make-up of their panels..

Despite its built-in systemic bias, I enjoy reading the list every year.  It is fun to see who has moved up, or down, or get dropped.  Just don’t take the list too seriously.