Spanish restaurant El Celler de Can Roca takes Best in the World title again

The title of world’s best restaurant has stayed in Europe with Spanish restaurant El Celler de Can Roca winning the number one place back again. The three brothers, head chef Joan Roca, pastry chef Jordi and sommelier Josep took the lusted after prize for their Girona restaurant in London’s Guildhall tonight.

Rumours circulated all day that the World’s Best was about to cross the Atlantic for the first time in a decade with New York restaurant Eleven Madison Park tipped for the top slot. In the end Daniel Humm’s restaurant dropped a place from four to five. The last time an American restaurant won was in 2004 when Thomas Keller’s French Laundry took the title for the second year running.  This year French Laundry was at number 50.

El Celler de Can Roca held the title in 2013 before Rene Redzepi won it back for Copenhagen’s Restaurant Noma last year. Speaking to journalists outside the Guildhall before the event, Redzepi was already being asked about his legacy. Holding the title of world’s best chef for four years he is one year shy of Spain’s Ferran Adria’s five-year reign. “We might win. We might lose,” Redzepi said. "If we lose we’re going to win it again,” he said, pointing out to another journalist that he is “only 37” and not finished yet.

Noma dropped from top place to number three, with Italian chef Massimo Bottura taking the second-place slot for his Modena restaurant Osteria Franscescana. Bottura is bringing a pop-up restaurant to the Contemporary Art Galleries of Sotheby’s in London at the end of the month. He told journalists he had been to see the room before coming to the awards ceremony and was amazed by the calibre of art on the walls.

All eyes were on New York, especially with the announcement that next year’s award will leave the 12th century Guildhall and be held there. But in a hint that an English-speaking chef was not going to be hosting the victory press conference a Reuters reporter was quietly told that there would be a translator available.

The event was a who’s who of restaurant people from around the world. Talking to The Irish Times, London chef Fergus Henderson said he was a little surprised at the result. He has eaten in the Girona restaurant he said. Was it the best restaurant in the world? “It’s difficult to say,” he said.

The San Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants prize irritates and excites in equal measure. El Celler de Can Roca is a 55-seater restaurant and is already all but impossible to book. If there is a trend that will ripple out from its dining room it’s its warmth and stellar cooking. It  “is a restaurant that has never forgotten its humble roots,” the listing in the new Top 50 guide says, along with “its sense of familial warmth or the need to serve remarkably delicious dishes and outstanding wines.”

It was Spain’s night, with Ferran Adria’s brother Albert taking the best pastry chef award and his circus-themed Tapas bar entering the Top 50 list for the first time. Spain is the only country to have two restaurants in the top ten, the number one slot and Mugaritz in San Sebastian at number six.