World’s best restaurant 2017 named
A glamorous restaurant in New York has been named the world’s best, but all eyes are on the new Aussie favourite.
A glamorous restaurant in the heart of Manhattan was tonight named the world’s best, however all eyes were on a weatherboard shack in downtown Birregurra, population 741, home to Australia’s newest restaurant on the world stage.
As expected, Brae, in Victoria’s western district near Colac, entered the pantheon of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants when the list for 2017 was announced in Melbourne tonight. Along with a small group of investors, Brae is run by husband and wife team Dan Hunter and his wife Julianne Bagnato.
So the World's Best Restaurant is... Eleven Madison Park! #Worlds50Best @wguidara pic.twitter.com/rJsaOXsyqO
— The World's 50 Best (@TheWorlds50Best) April 5, 2017
Joining perennial favourite with the judges Attica, it means Australia now has two restaurants in the elite, but sometimes controversial, annual ranking of restaurants from all over the world. Brae came in at 44; Attica, in suburban Melbourne, 32.
At the top the list, Eleven Madison Park, in New York, was for the first time deemed the world’s best. It is only the second time an American the restaurant has won the votes in the list’s 14 year history.
Both the restaurant’s principals, general manager Will Guidara and chef Daniel Humm, were in Melbourne to receive an award that will undoubtedly make it the most difficult to get into in the US.
We get to help people celebrate some of the most important moments in their lives,” said Guidara. “We get to create magical worlds.
“And this (award) is the greatest affirmation of all.”
Guidara spoke of Humm’s “unparalleled integrity”.
“He understands that what really matters is how we make our guests feel. He recognises that the restaurant is about much more than him.”
Said chef Daniel Humm: “As I’ve grown, one thing I’ve learned is that it doesn’t matter what’s on the plate if it’s not served with grace and integrity.”
Eleven Madison Park has been on the list seven years.
Second this year was the incumbent number one Osteria Francescana, from Modena Italy.
The list is a global poll of more than 1000 food experts and influencers from 26 discrete regions of the world. Last week, a supplementary list of restaurants ranked 51-100 was announced; Quay, in Sydney, was the only Australian announced in that group, at 95, although Perth-raised chef David Pynt, of Singapore’s Burnt Ends, nudged the elite at 53.
Aussies abroad doing well — although not as well as in previous years — included David Thompson, at Bangkok’s Nahm, at 28, and Brett Graham, at London’s The Ledbury, at 27.
A lifetime Achievement award went to part-time Aussie Heston Blumenthal, whose London restaurant Dinner by Heston came in at 36. Blumenthal received a standing ovation.
In the wake of the super chef’s controversial appearance on The Project earlier this week, Blumenthal didn’t disappoint with his acceptance speech referring to guts, brains, survival, evolution, imagination, education and “the rules of life.”
“Fear of failure … we need to learn how to remove the straitjacket of fear,” Blumenthal said.
