The world’s 5 Best Restaurants
Text: Anthea Gerrie. Photographs: Noma by Mikkel Heriba; Photograph supplied by El Celler de Can Rocca for El Celler de Can Rocca; Osteria Francescana by Paolo Terzi; Eleven Madison Park by Francesco Tonelli; Dinner by Alisa Connan and food by Ashley Palmer-Watts. Article from the July 2014 issue of Food and Home magazine.
Anthea Gerrie talks to the chefs whose restaurants recently made the top five on the official list of the world’s 50 best restaurants, sponsored by San Pellegrino and Acqua Panna
1. Noma – René Redzepi
Rene was mocked when he opened Noma in Copenhagen, pledging to use only Scandinavian ingredients. But ears pricked up when he won his first Michelin star. The restaurant has been voted the World’s Best for four of the past five years.
Do you apply the ‘strictly local’ rule at home?
Not at all – we have miso paste, sesame seeds and seaweed from Hokkaido in our larder. Plus olive oil, as my wife is from Portugal and I was raised partly in Macedonia.
Does the restaurant’s success depend on keeping exotic ingredients out?
I’ve started to think that if I added a few drops of olive oil to a cucumber vinaigrette, it wouldn’t be such a terrible thing. And, since 2009, when I travelled to Japan at the invitation of a Kyoto chef, I’ve been fascinated by their food culture.
Is this why you’re relocating Noma to Japan for two months in 2015?
It’s vital that we all go, including the dishwashers. I’m not planning to turn Noma into a Japanese restaurant, but seeing what we can do with tofu, yuzu and other ingredients we’ve never worked with before is essential to our three-year plan.
Most bothering food trend?
Eating very small animals, like suckling pigs and creatures still taking milk from their mothers.
What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten?
I cooked a mealworm someone sent me, which I thought I’d investigate. I ate it every day, fried crisp; I was curious to see how long it would take me to stop feeling revolted by it. It took six days.
2. El Celler de Can Roca – Jordi Roca
Jordi is one of the three brothers who are the creative geniuses behind Spanish eatery El Celler de Can Roca, which took the top spot in 2013. In charge of desserts and responsible for many of the craziest ideas, he was named World’s Best Pastry Chef in 2014.
What are the strangest desserts you’ve served up?
There are the edible perfumes. But I’m particularly pleased with the dish celebrating a famous Barcelona goal. It has meringue footballs, goal netting made of caramel and popping candy for the applause.
Is your own taste in food avant-garde?
No – I have lunch every day in our parents’ traditional restaurant, and I love my mother’s rice with calamari and my father’s grilled chicken.
What is the most important piece of equipment in your kitchen?
A teaspoon – without having one to taste as I go, I couldn’t cook at all.
3. Osteria Francescana – Massimo Bottura
The holder of three Michelin stars, Massimo Bottura of Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy, has held the number 3 spot for two years running and is tipped to be next to take the crown.
You have been described as “bonkers but brilliant” – what was your maddest idea?
My dessert called “Oops! A broken lemon tart”, which came from dropping one in the kitchen. I thought it looked so beautiful.
Do the locals enjoy the way you play with traditional Italian cuisine?
No – in this land of ‘Slow Food’, you can’t mess about with grandmother dishes!
How did you learn these new-fangled ideas?
Modena is famous for its balsamic vinegar and, when Alain Ducasse came looking for some, he asked where he could get a good meal. He ate my food, then invited me to study with him in Monte Carlo. A few years later, Ferran Adrià invited me to elBulli to open my mind. But it was my visit to New York in 1993 where I learnt to think in a very contemporary way; nothing was ever the same again.
4. Eleven Madison Park – Daniel Humm
The Swiss chef has taken New York’s Eleven Madison Park to the number 4 spot, as well as Aqua Panna Best Restaurant in the USA.
What makes your restaurant stand out in New York?
I have given the food a sense of place by paying homage to the settlers who have made New York their home over the past 300 years. Even the egg cream was a staple of the old soda fountains.
Does your Swiss background play a part at all?
Absolutely! In Switzerland, every town and village pays homage to its heritage with their own special dish. Our restaurant is also housed in the Credit Suisse Building and the chef at the famous Delmonico’s, opposite ours, was also Swiss. We honour him by serving the Baked Alaska he invented.
Who would you most like to cook for?
Mick Jagger – I love The Rolling Stones!
5. Dinner – Ashley Palmer-Watts
The glory of taking London-based Dinner by Heston Blumenthal to the number 5 spot goes to head chef Ashley Palmer-Watts.
What’s it like working in Heston’s shadow?
It has grown into a true collaboration over 14 years. When I was head chef of The Fat Duck, he gave me the opportunity to open Dinner – research and cook historic British recipes going back as far as 1300 – and said he wouldn’t do it if I said no.
Most irritating food trend?
Style over substance and ambitious ideas poorly executed.
Any British dishes you find disappointing?
Fish and chips. We’re going to serve proper fish and chips with mushy peas in our new Perfectionists’ Cafe at Heathrow.
Future ambitions?
To open three or four more Dinners around the world. The first is already being built in Melbourne.
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