/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/64024276/eleven_madison_park_emp_50_best.0.jpg)
Today the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list announced the people who were recognized by judges as good, but not good enough to make it to the problematic, titular top 50. Whereas in past years, the list has released what’s become known as the “back 50,” with restaurants ranking 51 to 100, this year the list-makers extended to 120, ostensibly to celebrate the 120th anniversary of the list’s sponsor, San Pellegrino. So, um, welcome, the back 70.
Some perennial top 50 favorites have fallen off this year: Alex Atala’s D.O.M. in Sao Paulo has fallen from 30 to 54; the Ledbury in London has fallen from 42 to 64; Nihonryori RyuGin in Tokyo from 41 to 62.
Meanwhile, last year’s Best Female Chef winner Clare Smyth made it onto the long list this year, with her London restaurant Core by Clare Smyth debuting at 66. 2016 Best Female Chef winner Dominique Crenn is once again conspicuously missing from the long list; despite last year’s expectations of her San Francisco tasting-menu Atelier Crenn making the list following its third Michelin star, she was shut out. The same thing may well happen again this year, even as the list-makers claim they want to rectify the lists’s long-standing skew towards male chefs.
Ultimately, the extra-long long list does not tell us much about what to expect from the top 50. This year, past winners of the No. 1 slot are off the list completely; that means no Eleven Madison Park, no Osteria Francescana, no Cellar de Can Roca. It’s hard to imagine what the top 10 might look like without those perennial places (the Fat Duck and the French Laundry are also off the list, but neither of those restaurants has been in the top 10 in ages). Using last year’s rankings as a predictor, Mauro Colagreco’s Mirazur in Menton, France; Gaggan Anand’s Gaggan in Bangkok; or Virgilio Martinez and Pia Leon’s Central in Lima are the most likely to take the top spot. Of course, per 50 Best regulations that allow Noma 2.0 on the list (it has a “new concept, location and structure” okay!!!!), there’s a good chance René Redzepi’s restaurant will once again take the top honors after having won four times before ...and then never be on the list again for real this time.
[UPDATE June 19th: The above paragraph has been updated to reflect that Noma is not disqualified from the list despite having been a number one restaurant.]
The longer, 120-spot list does allow the organization to fete some legacy industry players despite the fact that their restaurants have mostly fallen out of favor. Among the big-name restaurants to fall past the 100 mark are Thomas Keller’s Per Se in New York City (Keller would be off the list entirely otherwise thanks to the new rules around number one restaurants), Fergus Henderson’s St. John in London, and Pascal Barbot’s L’Astrance in Paris.
The organization’s press release around the long list emphasized diversity. Among the insights offered by the release under the sub-heading “The 51 - 120 list in numbers: developing diversity”: “51-120 boasts 21 new entries from 15 countries, marking a near 30% increase in new territories this year.” Twenty-five countries are represented in six continents (only Antartica is missing), and four new countries are now on the list. Given how much the list has struggled to break free of its Euro-centric biases, increased regional diversity is good. But the U.S.A. has the most entries on the back 70 with seven restaurants, five of which are in New York and the other two in northern California. And among the “new regions” added are the Marche region and the Dolomites in Italy, Ghent in Belgium, and southern Spain’s Aponiente. Diversifying regions within Europe doesn’t really make the list any less Eurocentric.
Another part of the release subtitled “Female Forward” notes that “there is a strong female presence” on the long list this year. To be clear there are six restaurants on this list with women at the helm in the kitchen. Six out of 70. If that’s worth calling out as “female forward,” it seems likely that the organization has failed in meaningfully diversifying its long list. But we’ll find out for sure when the top 50 is revealed in Singapore next week.
51. Reale, Castel del Sangro, Italy
52. Mikla, Istanbul
53. Arzak, San Sebastian, Spain
54. D.O.M., Sao Paolo
55. Maeemo, Oslo
56. Relae, Copenhagen
57. Nobelhart and Schmutzig, Berlin
58. Sud 777, Mexico City
59. Burnt Ends, Singapore
60. Indian Accent, New Delhi
61. Uliassi, Senigallia, Italy
62. Nihonryori RyuGin, Tokyo
63. Florilege, Tokyo
64. The Ledbury, London
65. Selfie, Moscow
66. Core by Clare Smyth, London
67. Astrid y Gaston, Lima
68. Faviken, Jarpen, Sweden
69. Nahm, Bangkok
70. Saison, San Francisco
71. SingleThread, Healdsburg, USA
72. Aqua, Wolsfburg, Germany
73. Mani, Sao Paolo
74. Lasai, Rio de Janiero
75. DiverXo, Madrid
76. Momofuku Ko, New York
77. Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare, New York
78. Lido 84, Gardone, Riviera, Italy
79. Mingles, Seoul
80. Estela, New York
81. Quique Dacosta, Denia, Spain
82. Engima, Barcelona
83. Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, London
84. Attica, Melbourne
85. Amass, Copenhagen
86. Tegui, Buenos Aires, Argentina
87. Martin Berasategui, Lasate-Oria, Spain
88. Lun King Heen, Hong Kong
89. 108, Copenhagen
90. Alo, Toronto
91. Sushi Saito, Tokyo
92. Harvest, St. Petersburg
93. La Cime, Osaka, Japan
94. Aponiente, El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain
95. Gaa, Bankok
96. Belon, Hong Kong
97. Vendome, Bergisch Gladbach, Germany
98. Anne-Sophie Pic, Valence, France
99. The Jane, Antwerp, Belgium
100. Oteque, Rio de Janeiro
101. Brae, Birregurra, Australia
102. Amber, Hong Kong
103. Jade Dragon, Macao
104. Cococo, St. Petersburg
105. Kadeau, Copenhagen
106. Restaurant David Toutain, Paris
107. Il Ristorante Luca Fantin, Tokyo
108. L’Astrance, Paris
109. Alcalde, Guadalajara, Mexico
110. Neolokal, Istanbul
111. Chambre Separee, Ghent, Belgium
112. St. John, London
113. Vea, Hong Kong
114. La Colombe, Cape Town
115. Per Se, New York
116. St. Hubertus, San Cassiano, Italy
117. Epicure, Paris
118. Ernst, Berlin
119. Atomix, New York
120. Sugalabo, Tokyo
Additional reporting by Ryan Sutton.