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When world’s best restaurant lists are announced, there’s usually one winner. Not so for La Liste, which has just awarded the top spot to nine restaurants this year using an algorithm.
The No. 1 honorees are: Le Bernardin in the US; SingleThread in the US; L’Enclume in the United Kingdom; Cheval Blanc by Peter Knogl, in Switzerland; La Vague d’Or in France; Guy Savoy in France; Schwarzwaldstube in Germany; Matsukawa in Japan; and Lung King Heen in Hong Kong.
They each got a ranking of 99.5.
“It feels significant to be representing British culinary talent on this global stage,” says Simon Rogan, chef-owner of L’Enclume in the UK’s Lake District, which has retained its No. 1 spot from last year, along with five other dining rooms.
The nine-year-old La Liste’s approach differs from other rankings.
Rather than rely on anonymous judges, as Michelin famously does, or individual voters, as the World’s 50 Best opts for, the Paris-based company aggregates around 1 100 sources, including a synthesis of reviews from newspapers, magazines, guidebooks, and blogs. It then uses an algorithm to compile its rankings of 1 000 dining rooms across 79 countries.
(Their app lists 35 000 restaurants from 200 countries.) Its founders argue this is a more objective way of measuring top rankings. The results aren’t surprising; for the most part, the list reads like a compendium of the most famous restaurants in cities worldwide.
They’re the ones that get written about the most, like the students voted most popular in a yearbook.
But La Liste finds other ways to use its data, including recognising a country for its burgeoning culinary scene. — Bloomberg
Online Reporter