El Celler de Can Roca tops Noma as World’s Best Restaurant

El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, northeastern Spain, has ended Noma’s three-year run at number one to be voted the World’s Best Restaurant.

Roca ‘n’ roll: The Roca brothers (L-R) Joan, Josep and Jordi

Run by brothers Joan, Josep and Jordi, the Catalonian restaurant spent two years in second place behind Copenhagen’s Noma, but clinched the top spot from René Redzepi’s restaurant last night.

Announced at a ceremony at the Guildhall in London attended by the cream of the catering world, modern Italian restaurant Osteria Francescana in Modena run by Massimo Bottura rose two spots to scoop third place.

Meanwhile, Mugaritz in San Sebastian moved down a spot to fourth, while Eleven Madison Park in New York jumped up five places to fifth.

Only three UK restaurants made it into the top 50: Dinner by Heston Blumenthal at number 7, The Ledbury at number 13 and The Fat Duck, which slid 20 places to number to 33.

Veuve Clicquot’s Best Female Chef: Nadia Santini

London restaurants Pollen Street Social in Mayfair, Viajante in Bethnal Green, St John in Farringdon and Hedone in Chiswick all featured in the top 100 list.

French chef Alain Ducasse picked up a lifetime achievement award, while Nadia Santini of Dal Pescatore in Lombardy was voted the Veuve Clicquot Best Female Chef.

“El Celler de Can Roca has gained global acclaim for its combination of Catalan dishes and cutting-edge technique,” the award organisers said in a release.

“The brothers believe in freestyle cooking with a commitment to the avant-garde, but remain faithful to the memory of their family’s ancestors,” the release added.

A family affair, oldest brother Joan is the restaurant’s head chef, while middle brother Josep is head sommelier and younger brother Jordi head pastry chef.

Joan and Josep opened El Celler de Can Roca in 1986, which won its first Michelin star in 1995, second in 2002 and third in 2009.

Meat Fruit at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, which ranked at number 7

Among the dishes on its €130 euro tasting menu are Iberian suckling pig and charcoal-grilled king prawn with ink rocks, fried legs, head juice and king prawn essence.

The rankings are compiled by aggregating the votes of 26 regional panels.

In each regional panel the 36 members pick seven restaurants, including at least three from outside his or her region, for a total of 936 votes worldwide.

To mark the rise of South American cuisine on the world stage, this September the organisers of the World’s 50 Best will launch Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants awards, hosted in Peru’s capital city, Lima.

This February, the inaugural Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants awards took place in Singapore. A full exploration of the evolution of the Asian fine dining scene will appear in the drinks business’ next Eat.Drink report, published in June.

For the full World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2013 list, click here.