Canadian restaurants fail to place in the S. Pellegrino Top 50—again

Let the ritual speculation and recrimination commence. Once again, no restaurants from Canada made it to the list of the world’s 50 best restaurants, as compiled by Restaurant magazine (and sponsored, conspicuously, by S. Pellegrino). And just like last year—but unlike 2010—no Canadian restaurants made it to the consolation prize list of numbers 51-100. Is it because Canadian cooking is insufficiently ambitious? Perhaps there’s too much plaid and reclaimed wood in our dining rooms. Or maybe the 800+ judges just aren’t familiar enough with this country’s food? Or perhaps—to get all conspiracy-theory on this—the top end Canadian restaurants don’t serve enough S. Pellegrino (yes, some Canadian chefs offer this as a reason for this country’s absence on the annual list).

For the third year in a row, René Redzepi’s Noma, in Copenhagen, held on to the top spot, followed by the same pair of Spanish restaurants as last year: El Celler de Can Roca in Girona and Mugaritz in San Sebastian. For those inclined to bask in reflected (or even refracted) glory, David Chang, who’ll be opening two or possibly three spots in Toronto this summer, placed twice, at number 37 with Momofuku Ssam Bar and at number 79 with his tiny Momofuku Ko, while Daniel Boulud, whose Café Boulud will open at the Four Seasons this year, placed at number 25 for Daniel.

The entire Top 50 list: