In victory, top chefs are much like the classiest of professional tennis players: self-deprecatory, admiring of their rivals, grateful to their teachers. Just last month, after his restaurant Maido was proclaimed No. 1 among at "The World's 50 Best Restaurants" award ceremony in Turin, Italy, Mitsuharu Tsumura told me, "There is competition, but when you finish, you shake hands, you have a beer.”
Unlike tennis and other sports, though, the world of haute cuisine doesn’t really have a universally recognized ranking system like the Association of Tennis Professionals and the Women’s Tennis Association. For those who point to the "Michelin Guide," I will politely say the French tire company provides ratings not rankings.
"The 50 Best" franchise certainly provides a glitzy showcase for some of the finest eating establishments in the world, but it’s incomprehensive. The list has lots of Latin American representation, like Maido in Peru, but sparse North American luminaries. (One of my favorites, Atomix in New York, placed 12th this year, dropping six spots; the next U.S. restaurant isn’t even in the top 50: Single Thread in Healdsburg, California, at 80.)
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