Italian chef Bottura’s Osteria Francescana wins prize for world’s best restaurant

Osteria Francescana of Italy regains the ‘ World’s Best Restaurant’ title

In a ceremony to pick the world’s top 50 best fine dining joints for 2018, culinary masterminds from five continents had gathered in the Spanish port city of Bilbao. For 2018, Osteria Francescana, an Italybased restaurant that is runned by a 55- year- old Italian chef Massimo Bottura, won the top spot. Bottura, who’s trained in classic Italian recipes, won the title for the first time in 2016.

In other surprises from the championship, 2015 winner El Celler de Can Roca finished second and France’s Mirazur, which was fourth in the list last year, took third place. Indian chef Gaggan Anand owned restaurant in Bangkok bagged the fifth spot.

“We built this together,” Bottura told the packed auditorium of the Palacio Euskalduna in Bilbao, where many of his contemporaries were gathered. “I’m not going to disappoint you, I’m going to show the world that chefs in 2018 are much more than the sum of their recipes if we stay together,” Bottura added. A time when European eateries are continuing to dominate the world’s best list, Bangkok’s Gaggan stood at fifth place whereas, Lima’s Central took sixth place.

A profession that is often argued to be dominated by men, the World’s 50 Best Restaurants’ prize for female chef of the year was given to Clare Smyth of London’s Core restaurant. “I’m constantly being asked why we have a lack of female chefs, why we don’t see more women represented at the top level ... and why don’t we have more diversity,” she said. “I don’t have the answers.”

She said the industry needed to create better working environments and make restaurants an equal and “more human workplace for both men and women.”

“We must draw a line under this and make sure we clear a path for the next generation. I for one can’t wait until we achieve equality and the debate moves on.”

Other significant prizes included the Lifetime Achievement Award, which went to Peruvian chef Gastón Acurio of Astrid y Gastón.

France’s Cédric Grolet won Best Pastry Chef and Spain’s Azurmendi took a prize for sustainability.

According to organisers, the results were compiled from an “independent” voting panel of 1,000 judges that were subject to adjudication.

The prize ceremony began with tributes to culinary legends who have passed in the preceding year.

Among them Gualtiero Marchesi, the first Italian chef ever to receive three Michelin stars, and French “pope of gastronomes” Paul Bocuse.

Anthony Bourdain, the CNN presenter, writer and chef who often railed against the kind of fine dining establishments celebrated by the awards, was also remembered.

“His honesty and his stubborn truth telling changed our industry for the better,” said William Drew, group editor of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants.

I’m not going to disappoint you, I’m going to show the world that chefs in 2018 are much more than the sum of their recipes if we stay together — Massimo Bottura, Italian chef