World’s 50 Best Restaurants for 2018

The 2018 list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants was just published. Unfortunately for Dominique Crenn, the prediction that her restaurant would be among this select group did not come true, as Atelier Crenn was shut out of the rankings entirely after debuting at number 83 last year. Last year’s number one restaurant, Daniel Humm and Will Guidara’s Eleven Madison Park, fell three places to number four. The 2016 winner, Osteria Francescana, led by chef Massimo Bottura, regained its place at the top of the rankings.

Spain’s El Celler de Can Roca gained one place to land in second place (the same place it too occupied in 2016), while Mirazur, located in Menton, France, nabbed the third spot. Rounding out the top five were Gaggan (Bangkok, Thailand) and Central (Lima, Peru). The number of female chefs (or co-chefs) on the list increased from three in 2017 to five today: Central by Pia León and Virgilio Martínez, Arzak by Elena and Juan Mari Arzak, Hiša Franko by Ana Ros, Cosme by Daniela Soto-Innes and Enrique Olvera, and Nahm by Pim Techamuanvivit (one caveat: Techamuanvivit assumed the top chef job earlier this year, presumably after the voting ended).

Many restaurants on the list will be familiar to EYB Members from the cookbooks of the chefs who lead the eateries. A large number of those titles are published under the Phaidon imprint. Remember that EYB Members receive a 30 percent discount on books from Phaidon; visit the special EYB page to receive these great savings. 

Several of the stunning Phaidon cookbooks from top 50 chefs on this year’s and previous lists are indexed, including El Celler de Can Roca by Juan Roca, Central by Virgilio Martinez and Nicholas Gill, Mexico from the Inside Out by Enrique Olvera, D.O.M. by Alex Atala, Mugaritz by Andoni Luiz Aduriz, Never Trust a Skinny Italian Chef by Massimo Bottura, Fäviken by Magnus Nilsson, Coi by Daniel Patterson, and Peru: the Cookbook by Gastón Acurio. 

Non-Phaidon published books indexed on EYB include Eleven Madison Park: The Cookbook by Daniel Humm and Will Guidara, Alinea by Grant Achatz, Origin by Ben Shewry of restaurant Attica in Australia, and several books by Alain Passard of Arpège in France and Eric Ripert of Le Bernardin in New York. Boragó: Coming from the South by Rodolfo Guzman, is currently being indexed. An English translation of Etxebarri by Jon Sarabia, representing the grill cookery of the number 10 restaurant Asador Extebarri, is expected this fall.