Spanish restaurant is world No1

SPANISH restaurant El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, north of Barcelona, has been named the best in the world; grabbing the title from Copenhagen’s Noma.

The World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards, voted on by 900 chefs and critics and run by the UK’s Restaurant magazine, contain six French restaurants – with the highest managing 16th place.

France is, with the US, the best represented country in the list with L'Arpège in Rue de Varenne in Paris leading the way. It is followed by 18th-placed Le Chateaubriand in Paris 11th arrondissement; No23 L'Astrance (in Paris 16th); a fall of 12 places to No24 for L'Atelier Saint Germain de Joël Robuchon (Paris 7th), No28 Mirazur in Menton, and 49th-placed Septime in Paris 11th arrondissement.

Septime was highlighted by the judges, who said “its inexpensive menus prove high prices are not obligatory in the World’s 50 Best Restaurants”.

El Celler is run by the three Roca brothers, Joan in the kitchens, Jordi the patissier and Josep the sommelier, and takes the title back to Catalonia for the first time since El Bulli in Rosa took No1 four times between 2006 and 2009. Ferran Adrià’s restaurant closed in 2011.

There are just three entries from the UK with Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck at Bray dropping 20 places to 33rd – although his latest restaurant, Dinner, in Knightsbridge, was placed seventh. Australian Brett Graham’s Ledbury in London was placed 13th.

Danish restaurant Noma, which was had to close temporarily after a food bug scare last February, dropped to second place with Modena’s L'Osteria Francescana in third.

Along with El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, two others in the top 50 are within easy driving distance of the south-west of France: the fourth-placed Mugaritz in San Sebastián and the eighth-placed Arzak, also in the Basque capital.

From Lille, the 25th-placed Hof Van Cleve in Kruishoutem in Belgium is a short drive, as is the Combal.Zero in Rivoli, Italy, for anyone in Briançon.

Photo: Restaurant magazine