World's 50 Best Restaurants awards 2016: Attica down one spot
- The full list: World's 50 Best Restaurants 2016
- Attica: the famous restaurant you no longer know
- Melbourne to host 'Olympic Games of food' in 2017
- Brae climbs up world's best restaurant list but Sydney's Quay falls
- The 2015 list results
It's been a bittersweet year for Australia at the World's 50 Best Restaurants awards, with two major players slipping down the list, and Melbourne being crowned as host city for 2017 - the second city, after New York, to ever host the awards outside London.
Osteria Francescana, in Italy's Modena, won number one position, accepted by an emotional Massimo Bottura. El Celler de Can Roca, in Spain, dropped from 1st to 2nd position, New York's Eleven Madison Park came in 3rd, followed by Peru's Central. Copenhagen's Noma, which spent the first half of 2016 in Sydney, slid from 3rd position in 2015 to 5th.
Attica won best restaurant in Australasia, but slipped down one place from 32nd to 33rd position, while Australian David Thompson's Nahm, in Bangkok, placed 37th, down from 22nd in 2015. Newcastle export Brett Graham's London restaurant The Ledbury rose from 20th position to 14th. Chef Isaac McHale, who is an alumni from Sydney's Marque restaurant, had the highest new entry with The Clove Club in London coming in at 26.
Restaurants ranking 51-100 were announced last week, with Victoria's Brae jumping an impressive 22 positions from 87th to 65th position. Sydney's Quay slid from 58th to 98th.
Brae's impressive 22 position climb reflects 12 months of hard work for the Victorian team, according to operations manager and partner of chef Dan Hunter, Julianne Bagnato.
"We're relieved and excited," Bagnato said. "You don't expect to move up; you hope to stay where you are and if you are lucky you move up.
"It's a great time to be a regional restaurant. Food is becoming so much more culturally significant in Australia and people are designing their holidays around it."
The best-of-the-best crowded into Cipriani Wall St, in Manhattan, for the prestigious awards ceremony, attended by more than 800 chefs, restaurateurs and members of the global food media.
This is the first year that the awards have left London, which has acted as host city for the past 14 years. It's the beginning of the awards' "global tour" of host cities, beginning with New York City this year, and heading on to Melbourne for 2017. Not all of the London touches were removed, with British-expat April Bloomfield catering the ceremony and UK television presenter Mark Durden-Smith acting as master of ceremonies.
The ceremony kicked off with a food-porn-heavy video spruiking Australia as one of the world's greatest food destinations, with Rene Redzepi and Heston Blumenthal, along with Peter Gilmore, Neil Perry and Ben Shewry waxing lyrical about the country's bounty. Those at this year's awards will be treated to an Aussie barbecue brunch, manned by Neil Perry, Dan Hunter, Peter Gilmore and Ben Shewry, planned to help ease the hangovers tomorrow morning.
This year's 'One to Watch' was awarded to Toyko's Den, which made it's debut at 77th place. Dominique Crenn, who runs San Francisco's Atelier Crenn and Petit Crenn, was awarded the World's Best Female chef. French chef Alain Passard received the 2016 Lifetime Achievement award.
Last year the first, second and third positions were taken by Spain's El Celler De Can Roca, Modena's Osteria Francescana and Copenhagen-via-Sydney's Noma respectively.
The awards are still underway in New York. Watch the live stream here.