TWO visitors to the Philippines made it to the Top 100 Restaurants of the World for 2023; one of them even being hailed as this year’s awardee for the Estrella Damm Chefs’ Choice Award.
Julien Royer, of Singapore’s Odette (itself taking the No. 14 spot), took home the Chefs’ Choice Award, the only peer-voted recognition in The World’s 50 Best Restaurants program. According to the website, the award “honors a chef who has made a positive contribution to the global culinary scene over the last year, as chosen by the teams behind the restaurants in this year’s list.” Odette, and 49 of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants, were recognized in a ceremony last month in Valencia, Spain.
Mr. Royer had visited the Philippines in 2017 as one of the speakers at Madrid Fusión Manila. That year, the roster included chefs Pedro Subijana, Paco Pérez, Jordi Roca, Julien Royer, Magnus Ek, and Gert De Mangeleer. At that time, Odette had earned two Michelin stars in Singapore’s first Michelin Guide just the year before. Since then, Odette has won the top spot in Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list twice.
In an interview with BusinessWorld’s bi-monthly High Life magazine in 2017, Mr. Royer said, “In each dish that we do, I try to target the comfort zone. What I call the comfort zone is that spoon that you are about to put in your mouth, and to satisfy your palate. It can be a high-end dish, or a very complex dish, a very modern and avant-garde dish. I still want to be able to put this comfort zone into the dish.” (story here: https://www.bworldonline.com/arts-and-leisure/2017/08/01/2586/madrid-fusion-manila-2017-julien-royer/)
Meanwhile, another Singapore restaurant, Labyrinth, climbed up to the No. 11 spot in Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants from last year’s 40. Around the world, it made its debut in the Top 100 List this year, entering the list at No. 97. Its chef, LG Han, was in the Philippines last year for a four-hand dinner with chef Chele Gonzalez, whose Gallery by Chele also placed No. 69 that year (story here: https://www.bworldonline.com/arts-and-leisure/2022/09/01/471719/four-hand-dinner-focuses-on-the-taste-of-singapore/).
In an interview with Mr. Han last year, he said, “There are a lot of top-notch restaurants in Singapore. That’s only a percentage of all the fine-dining restaurants. The quality and competence level is very high over in Singapore. You get new kids opening [restaurants] every year; they get better and better. The veterans are also refining their games; they’re reinvesting into restaurants. The competition doesn’t get easier as years go by.”
This year, Singapore has five restaurants in the Top 100 list: the aforementioned Labyrinth at No. 97, Meta at No. 84, Zén at No. 69, Burnt Ends at No. 65, and Odette at No. 14.
THE TOP SPOTThis year’s top spot was taken by Lima, Peru’s Central, headed by couple Virgilio Martínez and his wife and head chef Pía León. According to the World’s 50 Best Website, Central’s dishes take their cues from their origins in Peru’s ecosystems, counting among them the Dry Valley (a dish of shrimp, loche squash, and avocado) and Amazonian Water (made of pacu fish, watermelon, and coca leaf).
William Drew, Director of Content for World’s 50 Best Restaurants said in a speech, “This entire event is a celebration: a celebration of great talent, of resilience, and teamwork; of diverse cuisines, and culinary cultures.”
The World’s 50 Best Restaurants for 2023 are:
1. Central (Lima)2. Disfrutar (Barcelona)3. Diverxo (Madrid)4. Asador Etxebarri (Atxondo)5. Alchemist (Copenhagen)6. Maido (Lima)7. Lido 84 (Gardone Riviera)8. Atomix (New York)9. Quintonil (Mexico City)10. Table by Bruno Verjus (Paris)11. Trèsind Studio (Dubai)12. A Casa do Porco (São Paulo)13. Pujol (Mexico City)14. Odette (Singapore)15. Le Du (Bangkok)16. Reale (Castel di Sangro)17. Gaggan Anand (Bangkok)18. Steirereck (Vienna)19. Don Julio (Buenos Aires)20. Quique Dacosta (Dénia)21. Den (Tokyo)22. Elkano (Getaria)23. Kol (London)24. Septime (Paris)25. Belcanto (Lisbon)26. Schloss Schauenstein (Fürstenau)27. Florilège (Tokyo)28. Kjolle (Lima)29. Boragó (Santiago)30. Frantzén (Stockholm)31. Mugaritz (San Sebastian)32. Hiša Franko (Kobarid)33. El Chato (Bogotá)34. Uliassi (Senigallia)35. Ikoyi (London)36. Plénitude (Paris)37. Sézanne (Tokyo)38. The Clove Club (London)39. The Jane (Antwerp)40. Restaurant Tim Raue (Berlin)41. Le Calandre (Rubano)42. Piazza Duomo (Alba)43. Leo (Bogotá)44. Le Bernardin (New York)45. Nobelhart & Schmutzig (Berlin)46. Orfali Bros Bistro (Dubai)47. Mayta (Lima)48. La Grenouillère (La Madelaine-sous-Montreuil)49. Rosetta (Mexico City)50. The Chairman (Hong Kong)
— Joseph L. Garcia