The best table in the world is Peruvian according to the influential ranking of the 50 Best Restaurants and it is in Lima that you will find it. “Central stands out for its combinations of ingredients that showcase all the beauty and diversity of Peruvian cuisine,” according to a recent Instagram post from one of its clients. Expert in world gastronomy and independent analyst Nicolas Chatenier, author of the book The Wrench at Menu Fretin, is not surprised: “Chefs Virgilio Martínez and Pia Leon (his wife) have done a lot to showcase Peruvian products and their work for the conservation of Peruvian culinary culture is paying off today. »
Central leads three Spanish tables, while another Peruvian restaurant ranks sixth. The first French, Table by Bruno Verjus in Paris ranks 10th and the others are struggling – Septime by Bertrand Grébaud (24th), Plénitude by Arnaud Donckele (36th) and La Grenouillère by Alexandre Gauthier (48th). Why, with the exception of Mauro Colagreco’s Mirazur in Menton which came first in 2019 (and which is now out of competition as part of the Best of the best), do the French generally find themselves so poorly ranked?
“The 50 Best is a global barometer of global gastronomy at the moment T”, explains Nicolas Chatenier. Let’s remember the method: the ranking has been awarded since 2002 by 1,080 experts (chefs, specialized journalists, restaurant owners, etc.) who can vote for 10 restaurants, including at least three outside their region. “You have to be able to attract voters from abroad”, resumes Nicolas Chatenier who recognizes, in order to make himself desirable in this way, “a bonus to visual shock, to taste shock, to the bias of the originality”. Anything that makes for very instagrammable images.
“Above all, this gives a bonus to strong words, charismatic chefs, powerful cuisines from the point of view of taste, creativity, authenticity”, nuances our expert for whom local anchoring is also Very important. “Voters, when they travel, want very high level experiences, but also to feel that when they are in Lima, they are in Lima. This effectively creates a category of restaurants that naturally falls into the 50 Best, as opposed to restaurants that are also very gourmet and luxurious but which may have less to tell. These are found more in the classifications of the Michelin Guide or La liste. »
Let’s get back to the winner, Central, which devotes little-known Peruvian cuisine, but whose four restaurants are in the top 50 (as many as the French, let’s remember). “Peru has been relying on cuisine for fifteen years to attract tourists,” explains Nicolas Chatenier. They have terrific products on their side, potatoes, chocolate and others, a coastline that allows for incredible seafood products and real know-how resulting from a culinary culture that has merged best of Latin America and the flavors of Japan. »
“The 50 Best shows plate tectonics and a logic of soft power, continues our expert. Each country positions itself, commits investments in such a way that it appears favorably in this list. The Peruvians have become very strong for this, the Spaniards remain so too, the French less so, because in France we are very greedy and we tend to look at this phenomenon as if we were food critics. For him, this ranking is less a matter of food criticism than a matter of politics and cultural analysis.