There are a number of ways of judging and ranking the world’s restaurants: the Guide Michelin, which awards one, two, or three stars to those establishments its inspectors deem worthy; another French enterprise, the Guide Gault-Millau, which uses a 20-point scale; the controversial World’s Best Restaurants listings published annually; even, for some readers, the scores and reviews given on crowd-sourced sites such as Yelp and Tripadvisor. (Here’s a list of the best Michelin three-star restaurants in the world.)
The comparative new kid on the block is the Best Chef Awards, created in 2015 by two food-lovers – Polish neuroscientist Joanna Slusarczyk and Kraków-based Italian fashion house executive Cristian Gadau. Unlike other guides and rankings, these awards concentrate on, as their name suggests, chefs themselves – who may have more than one restaurant, not all of them necessarily rated at the top by the aforementioned sources.
To choose the 100 best individual culinary talents, a list is generated by (to quote the Best Chef website) a “group of 180 professionals which includes food journalists, critics, bloggers, photographers and other notable people with a broad knowledge of fine dining, with a gender balance.” The site continues “In 2023, each professional voter voted for 5 new candidates. All candidates must be actively working in gastronomy. The candidates must…represent the best in the world without cultural, ethnical, or other forms of discrimination.” (These are 24 Black chefs you should know.)
24/7 Tempo has drawn on the 2023 results – which were announced this year in Mérida, Mexico – to compile a list of the top 28 chefs from around the world (there are only 25 places, but there are three chef-partners included in one instance and two in another). We have added the chefs’ restaurants and their locations and also chosen one sample dish, typical of their cuisine. Note that the list of restaurants each chef is associated with may not be complete, and that the sample dishes have appeared on past menus but will probably not be currently available. Note also that the country of origin with which each chef is identified isn’t always the country where he or she is currently cooking.
Are these really the best chefs in the world? Well, maybe. It’s admirable that the list includes five chefs from South America and 10 from the culinary powerhouse that is Spain, as well as three women (Pic, Buffara, and the third-ranked Roš) – but are there really only half a dozen French chefs deserving of recognition in the whole list of 100? And of course such rankings are subjective, but where are – just for starters – Eric Ripert, Enrique Olvera, Martin Berasategui, Thomas Keller, Seiji Yamamoto, Jordi Cruz, or Mickael Viljanen, none of whom appear even on the complete roster?
Still, there’s no doubt that everyone on this list is a major contributor to the world of modern gastronomy, and any one of them would provide a memorable dining experience.
Here is more about the world’s best chefs – maybe:
25. Daniel Calvert (UK)
- Restaurant(s): Sézanne [Four Seasons Hotel Tokyo at Marunouchi] (Tokyo)
- Sample dish: Sweetbreads with pea shoots and preserved Meyer lemon
24. Yoshihiro Narisawa (Japan)
- Restaurant(s): Narisawa (Tokyo)
- Sample dish: Soft-shelled turtle
23. Jorge Vallejo (Mexico)
- Restaurant(s): Quintonil (Mexico City), Ixi’im (Chocholá, Mexico)
- Sample dish: King crab in pipián verde with sunflower seeds, makrut lime, Thai basil, and blue corn tostadas
22. Riccardo Camanini (Italy)
- Restaurant(s): Lido 84 (Gardone Riviera, Italy)
- Sample dish: Roasted sea bass with honey mustard and spinach
21. Anne-Sophie Pic (France)
- Restaurant(s): Anne-Sophie Pic and At André’s (Valence, France), La Dame de Pic (Paris), La Dame de Pic (London), La Dame de Pic (Singapore), Le Dame de Pic-Le 1920 (Megève, France), Anne-Sophie at the BRP [Beau-Rivage Palace] (Lausanne, Switzerland)
- Sample dish: Blue lobster roasted in seafood butter with lobster consommé flavored with red berries, creamy celery mousse, and green pepper
20. Javier & Sergio Torres (Spain)
- Restaurant(s): Cocina Hermanos Torres (Barcelona)
- Sample dish: Red mullet with daikon and meunière sauce
19. Manu Buffara (Brazil)
- Restaurant(s): Restaurante Manu Buffara (Curitiba, Brazil)
- Sample dish: Hokkaido scallops, coconut sour sauce, herbs
18. Grant Achatz (USA)
- Restaurant(s): Alinea, Next, Aviary, The Office, Roister, The St. Clair Supper Club (Chicago)
- Sample dish: “Clipped” (gooseberry, uni, morel, sweet corn)
17. Alex Atala (Brazil)
- Restaurant(s): D.O.M., Dalva e Dito, Bio (São Paulo, Brazil)
- Sample dish: Brazil nut tart with whiskey ice cream, curry, chocolate, salt, arugula, and pepper
16. Danny Yip (China)
- Restaurant(s): The Chairman (Hong Kong)
- Sample dish: Braised spare ribs with preserved plums in caramelized black ginger vinegar
15. Virgilio Martínez (Peru)
- Restaurant(s): Central (Lima, Peru), MIL (Maras, Peru), Estero [La Casa de la Playa] (Playa del Carmen, Mexico)
- Sample dish: “Spiders on a rock” (sargassum seaweed, mussels, crab, limpets)
14. Mitsuharu Tsumura (Peru)
- Restaurant(s): Maido (Lima, Peru)
- Sample dish: Guratan nigiri (fried shrimp with avocado, cream cheese, chimichurri, and eel sauce, flame-broiled tableside)
13. Ángel León (Spain)
- Restaurant(s): Aponiente (El Puerto de Santa María, Spain)
- Sample dish: Baby squid with black ink hollandaise
12. Eric Vildgaard (Denmark)
- Restaurant(s): Restaurant Jordnær (Gentofte, Denmark)
- Sample dish: Essence of langoustine, Marinda tomatoes, olive oil
11. Massimo Bottura (Italy)
- Restaurant(s): Osteria Francescana, Franceschetta58, Casa Maria Luigia [guesthouse], Al Gatto Verde (Modena, Italy), Il Cavallino (Maranello, Italy)
- Sample dish: “A potato that wants to become a truffle” (dehydrated potato-flour roll filled with potato, hazelnuts, and black truffle cream with white truffle grated on top)
10. Rodolfo Guzmán (Chile)
- Restaurant(s): Boragó (Santiago, Chile)
- Sample dish: Crudo of deer aged on beeswax and cured on peumo tree [Chilean acorn]
9. Junghyun Park (South Korea)
- Restaurant(s): Atomix, Atoboy, Naro, Seoul Salon (New York City)
- Sample dish: Tilefish, smoked eel, ají dulce, honeynut squash
8. Joan Roca (Spain)
- Restaurant(s): El Celler de Can Roca, Can Roca, Roca Mas Marroch, La Terrassa [Hotel Casa Cacao], Normal, Plaça del Vi 7 (Girona, Spain)
- Sample dish: Lamb with eggplant and chickpea purée, lamb’s trotters, and spicy tomato
7. Mateu Casañas, Oriol Castro, & Eduard Xatruch (Spain)
- Restaurant(s): Compartir (Cadaqués, Spain), Compartir and Disfrutar (Barcelona)
- Sample dish: Squab with amasake kombu spaghetti, almonds, and grapes
6. Rasmus Munk (Denmark)
- Restaurant(s): Alchemist (Copenhagen)
- Sample dish: Grilled cod jaw with smoked bone marrow, cream of Comté cheese, and dehydrated cod skin
5. Andoni Luis Aduriz (Spain)
- Restaurant(s): Mugaritz (Errenteria, Spain)
- Sample dish: Minestrone of pungent and bitter herbs
4. René Redzepi (Denmark)
- Restaurant(s): Noma (Copenhagen; closing in late 2024 and transforming into Noma 3.0, a test kitchen that will serve some meals)
- Sample dish: Lion’s mane mushroom roasted with wild roses
3. Ana Roš (Slovenia)
- Restaurant(s): Hiša Franko (Koband, Slovenia)
- Sample dish: Corn beignet, fermented cottage cheese, smoked trout roe, wild chives
2. Albert Adrià (Spain)
- Restaurant(s): Enigma (Barcelona), Cakes & Bubbles (London), Mercado Little Spain (New York City; collaborator)
- Sample dish: Coconut, caviar, and Iberian ham
1. Dabiz Muñoz (Spain)
- Restaurant(s): DiverXO, StreetXO, RavioXO (Madrid)
- Sample dish: Green papaya salad with steamed cockles, crunchy suckling pig, semi-dry tomatoes, creamy peanuts, and hibiscus dressing