The World’s 50 Best By San Pellegrino 2018
Average Price: $$ - $$$$$
Article Written: September 2018
By Sean Overpeck (CFE)
**A full article and index glossary of restaurants, wines, recipes and travel for
Wine Dine and Play are in the pages section above, or by following these links:
The San Pellegrino World’s 50 best restaurants is an annual list released in June of every year and are produced by the United Kingdom media company William Reed Business Media. The list first began in 2002 and also awards a series of special prizes for individuals as well as restaurants, including the ‘One To Watch award,’ and the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ as well as the ‘Chefs' Choice Award.’ A group of 26 panels established to make the ranking composed of 1,000 food experts, chefs, and critics were behind the list. The World's 50 Best Restaurants list has been criticized and described by the French food writer and critic François-Régis Gaudry that the ranking lacks reliability, while the Spanish chef Martín Berasategui spoke of "rigged" ranking, manipulated by an "important international food company" in order to "cause damage" to the Michelin Guide. In a recent Eater article, they talk about how San Pellegrino has favoritism toward expensive restaurants, and that the judges are sexist, favoring more male chefs and lacking female representation, as well as being overly Eurocentric. San Fransisco Chef Dominique Crenn slammed the 50 Best for gender inequality, criticized the female chef award as “stupid,” and accused the organization of treating women like “sport.”
Some people prefer to use the Elite Travelers list though it does have some identical restaurants to that of San Pellegrino, while the Michelin Guide caters more to Europe with 27,000 restaurants versus 2,500 restaurants everywhere else in the world and Michelin practically ignores most of Africa and the Middle East, all of Australia, and most of South America. There are many ranking media groups to choose from in individual countries or cities through such as Yelp, OpenTable, and TripAdvisor to name a few. These groups will cater more to your local area where reservations to dine will be quicker than a three-month wait, and the restaurants will not hurt your wallet too much.
