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In the World’s 50 Best Restaurants of 2024, one country really stood out

As the home to the number one and two restaurants in the world right now, this European favourite should be top of your list for any food-focused travel plans.

Callan Boys
Callan Boys

Former Rockpool chef Neil Perry has been named the World’s 50 Best Restaurants Awards “Icon” at a ceremony held this afternoon in Las Vegas.

The 2024 Icon Award – presented in a room packed with high-profile chefs, restaurateurs and food media at about 10pm US Pacific Time – celebrates Perry as “an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the hospitality industry worthy of global recognition”. The chef, who opened his first restaurant just over 40 years ago, now owns and runs the award-winning Margaret in Double Bay.

“[Perry] is arguably the most revered chef in his home nation, and a friend and mentor to many across the globe,” said awards presenter Olivia Freijo Lloyd.

Neil Perry, pictured at his Double Bay restaurant, Margaret, has been recognised at by the World’s 50 Best Restaurants Awards.
Neil Perry, pictured at his Double Bay restaurant, Margaret, has been recognised at by the World’s 50 Best Restaurants Awards.Jessica Hromas

It is the first time an Australian chef has received the Icon Award at the so-called Oscars of the food world, determined by a voting academy of more than 1000 “independent restaurant industry experts and well-travelled gourmets”.

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Previous World’s 50 Best Icons include chef and activist Dominique Crenn, owner of San Francisco’s three-Michelin-starred Atelier Crenn, and Andoni Luis Aduriz, the founder of pioneering San Sebastian restaurant Mugaritz.

Crenn, a friend of Perry’s, was on stage to present the award in Las Vegas. “For me, it’s always been about hospitality through generosity,” said Perry, accepting the trophy.

“It’s about making sure we care about each other – the [restaurant] team is everything. Then we have to look after the community and environment.

“What I’ve always tried to do is make sure that when young people come to work for us, they don’t just end up being better at their craft – better cooks, or restaurants or sommeliers – but end up being better people. If we do that, then I really think we’ve done our job.

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“This award is just incredible.”

From left, Serge Dansereau, Tony Bilson, Neil Perry and Tetsuya Wakuda at the Good Food Guide 20th Anniversary Dinner in 2004.
1 / 11From left, Serge Dansereau, Tony Bilson, Neil Perry and Tetsuya Wakuda at the Good Food Guide 20th Anniversary Dinner in 2004.Janie Barrett
With Stefano Manfredi , Barry McDonald and Serge Dansereau.
2 / 11With Stefano Manfredi , Barry McDonald and Serge Dansereau.Supplied
Winning Restaurant of the Year at the Good Food Guide Awards in 2003.
3 / 11Winning Restaurant of the Year at the Good Food Guide Awards in 2003. Mike Bowers
Pre-Rockpool days at Bondi’s Blue Water Grill.
4 / 11Pre-Rockpool days at Bondi’s Blue Water Grill.Supplied
A friendly face-off in The Rocks with Tony Bilson.
5 / 11A friendly face-off in The Rocks with Tony Bilson. Sahlan Hayes
Cooking with US chef Thomas Keller and the Fat Duck’s Heston Blumenthal at a charity event for the Starlight Foundation in 2006.
6 / 11Cooking with US chef Thomas Keller and the Fat Duck’s Heston Blumenthal at a charity event for the Starlight Foundation in 2006. Supplied
At Rockpool Bar & Grill in 2009.
7 / 11At Rockpool Bar & Grill in 2009. Earl Carter
Sydney’s most famous ponytail in 1992.
8 / 11Sydney’s most famous ponytail in 1992.Sheila Brown
At Rockpool with cousin and business partner Trish Richards in 1994.
9 / 11At Rockpool with cousin and business partner Trish Richards in 1994.Patrick Cummins
Surveying restoration work at the yet-to-open Rockpool site in 1988.
10 / 11Surveying restoration work at the yet-to-open Rockpool site in 1988.Fairfax Media
Perry with wife Samantha and, from left, daughters Josephine, Macy and Indy, who all work at Margaret.
11 / 11Perry with wife Samantha and, from left, daughters Josephine, Macy and Indy, who all work at Margaret.Petrina Tinslay

The 66-year-old first gained attention at Palm Beach’s Barrenjoey House, where his kitchen talents earned the destination diner a coveted hat in the 1984 edition of The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide. Bondi’s Blue Water Grill further propelled Perry’s Sydney stardom when it launched in 1986, and Rockpool opened on George Street three years later.

“For me, it’s always been about hospitality through generosity.”
Neil Perry

Rockpool’s immaculate seafood and east-meets-west flavours put Perry on the international stage.

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In 2002, The Rocks fine-diner debuted in fourth place on The World’s 50 Best Restaurant Awards inaugural list, published in British trade magazine Restaurant (and with considerably less fanfare than a red-carpet event in Las Vegas). UK-based events and publishing company William Reeds owns the 50 Best brand today.

Throughout his career, Perry has also been at the helm of Wockpool, Spice Temple, Rocket, XO, MCA Cafe, Rosetta, Rockpool Bar & Grill, Burger Project, Jade Temple and Eleven Bridge. Some venues were wildly successful; others decidedly less so. Across more than 40 years of cooking, however, Perry has been awarded more than 150 Good Food Guide hats across his restaurants, far eclipsing any of his peers.

Today, the one-time apprentice hairdresser operates Margaret in Double Bay, it’s adjoining bar Next Door, and charity project Hope Hospitality Foundation, founded during the first wave of COVID to provide meals to people in need. Later this year, the chef will open two more establishments in Double Bay: modern Cantonese restaurant Song Bird, and Bobbie’s, a basement jazz bar down below.

Although it was named Restaurant of the Year in the current edition of the Good Food Guide, Margaret did not make it onto the World’s 50 Best list in 2024.

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The only Australian venue to make an appearance was Josh Niland’s cutting-edge seafood restaurant Saint Peter in Paddington, Sydney, which placed 98th on the 51-100 “extended list”, announced in late May.

Disfruta in Barcelona was awarded first place in the World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
Disfruta in Barcelona was awarded first place in the World’s 50 Best Restaurants.Supplied

First place was awarded to Barcelona fine-diner Disfrutar, where a four-hour tasting menu costs $AU470 and recently featured a dish called “Fear: The Prawn” (guests are asked to blindly hunt through dry-ice vapour with bare hands to retrieve the titular shellfish).

A Spanish restaurant also claimed second position: fire-fuelled Asador Etxebarri, set in the quiet Basque village Atxondo. There are no piped gels and tweezered ants at Asador Etxebarri, rather pristine, seasonal produce cooked over custom-made grills by chef Victor Arguinzoniz.

Table by Bruno Verjus in Paris placed third, up from 10th position last year, while Madrid’s DiverXO came in at fourth. A meal at DiverXO will cost $AU735 and may include blue crab with kimchi ice-cream and grilled wild strawberries.

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The only Australian venue to make an appearance on the list was Josh Niland’s cutting-edge seafood restaurant Saint Peter at No.98

Copenhagen’s Alchemist – predicted by some industry experts to take the top prize in 2024 – was number 8 on the list, down from its fourth placing last year.

Led by chef Rasmus Munk, Alchemist features a dome-shaped ceiling with changing projections of jellyfish and coral reefs, and the 50-course “impressions” menu costs $AU1070. One dish looks freakishly like a human eyeball and features a “pupil” filled white asparagus juice and pistachios, topped with caviar and fish-eye gel.

Disfrutar now joins the awards’ “Best of the Best” group, composed of all restaurants which have topped the annual poll over its history. The Best of the Best restaurants – including Noma in Copenhagen and New York’s Eleven Madison Park – are no longer eligible to be voted on for new editions of the 50 Best list.

World's 50 Best Restaurants 2024

  1. Disfrutar, Barcelona, Spain
  2. Asador Etxebarri, Basque Country, Spain
  3. Table by Bruno Verjus, Paris, France
  4. DiverXO, Madrid, Spain
  5. Maido, Lima, Peru
  6. Atomix, New York City, USA
  7. Quintonil, Mexico City, Mexico
  8. Alchemist, Copenhagen, Denmark
  9. Gaggan, Bangkok, Thailand
  10. Don Julio, Buenos Aires, Argentina
  11. Septime, Paris, France
  12. Lido 84, Gardone Riviera, Italy
  13. Tresind Studio, Dubai, UAE
  14. Quique Dacosta, Denia, Spain
  15. Sezanne, Tokyo, Japan
  16. Kjolle, Lima, Peru
  17. Kol, London, England
  18. Plenitude, Paris, France
  19. Reale, Castel di Sangro, Italy
  20. Wing, Hong Kong
  21. Florilege, Tokyo, Japan
  22. Steirereck, Vienna, Austria
  23. Suhring, Bangkok, Thailand
  24. Odette, Singapore
  25. El Chato, Bogota, Colombia
  26. The Chairman, Hong Kong
  27. A Casa do Porco, Sao Paulo, Brazil
  28. Elkano, Getaria, Spain
  29. Borago, Santiago, Chile
  30. Restaurant Tim Raue, Berlin, Germany
  31. Belcanto, Lisbon, Portugal
  32. Den, Tokyo, Japan
  33. Pujol, Mexico City, Mexico
  34. Rosetta, Mexico City, Mexico
  35. Frantzen, Stockholm, Sweden
  36. The Jane, Antwerp, Belgium
  37. Oteque, Rio, Brazil
  38. Sorn, Bangkok, Thailand
  39. Piazza Duomo, Alba, Italy
  40. Le Du, Bangkok, Thailand
  41. Mayta, Lima, Peru
  42. Ikoyi, London, England
  43. Nobelhart & Schmutzig, Berlin, Germany
  44. Mingles, Seoul, South Korea
  45. Arpege, Paris, France
  46. Single Thread, Healdsburg, USA
  47. Schloss Schauenstein, Furstenau, Switzerland
  48. Hisa Franko, Kobarid, Slovenia
  49. La Colombe, Cape Town, South Africa
  50. Uliassi, Senigallia, Italy
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Callan BoysCallan Boys is editor of SMH Good Food Guide, restaurant critic for Good Weekend and Good Food writer.

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Original URL: https://www.watoday.com.au/link/follow-20170101-p5jjjy