BARCELONA'S CULINARY SCENE: the rise of new trends and their influence on Catalan culture

Every year, since 2002, the British magazine Restaurant publishes a list of The World's 50 Best Restaurants. The list is based on a survey involving international chefs and restaurateurs (34%), food writers (33%) and well-travelled gastronomes (33%).

The world is divided into 27 regions, with a chairperson in every region chosen for his or her knowledge of the dining industry. These moderators each selected a voting panel of 35 members, who cast a total of 5,859 votes. No voting member can vote for his own restaurant, or one in which he has a financial interest. They are each asked to vote for 7 restaurants; at least three must be outside of their home region, and members are required to have dined in restaurants they vote for within the past 18 month. Voters remain anonymous and the process is strictly confidential. Within the 27 panels destined to the ranking, a category named “the Chef's Choice” is based on votes from the fifty head chefs from the restaurants on the previous year's list. The division of the regions is designed every year to represent the global restaurant scene at the current time as fairly as possible. The results are published as soon as they have been announced to the assembled chefs, sponsors and media. There are no criteria that a restaurant has to meet: they do not have to sell a specific product, neither must they have been open for a certain number of years. So every restaurant in the world is eligible, but no one can apply to be on the list, or be nominated.

It is important to highlight that every year since its debut, one or more restaurants in Catalonia have been in the top three of the final ranking: nine times it was Ferran Adrià's elBulli, other six times it was El Celler de Can Roca, run by the three Roca brothers and located in Girona. This restaurant served typical Catalan cuisine with a creative twist, according to the 2013 Michelin Guide. Besides, the restaurant was awarded three Michelin stars in November 2009. With regard to this restaurant, he “50 Best” organization wrote: “Crucially, this is a restaurant that has never forgotten its humble roots, its sense of familial warmth, or the need to serve remarkably delicious dishes and outstanding wines.”9 The three brothers grew up in the kitchen of the restaurant their parents still run today, and later innovated the wide range of traditional Catalan recipes learned from their mother (Aulet et al, 2016).

The 2015 list was fairly interesting: France, the capital of haute cuisine, country known worldwide for its superior dining, did not feature in the top 10 of the World's 50 Best Restaurants for the fourth straight year, while back in 2004, five of the top 10 spots were occupied by French establishments. That year, the UK took three of the 10 places. Actually, back then more than half (27) of the best 50 were shared between these two countries. In 2015, France had five in the whole list; the UK two, and only one of them entered the top 10. Denmark and Sweden combined have had at least four restaurants in the best 50 every year since 2012; Italy only figured with three restaurants, but its highest placed entry, Osteria Francescana in Modena, is up into second place.

In Europe, Spain is the country that most earns successful stories: a total of seven Spanish restaurants made the best 50 (no country has more in 2015 list), and the most notable of these are in Catalonia.

Latin American restaurants were in the ascendancy too with nine in the list (in Peru, Chile, Mexico and Brazil), two of which occupying the top ten. For the first time, moreover, two restaurants based in Asia (in Tokyo and Bangkok) entered the top 10.

The World's 50 Best Restaurant List shows that Spain, and specifically the Catalan gastronomic landscape, is on the cutting edge of fine dining, judged to be home to some of the most genius culinary minds of the world. This shows that Catalonia has great potential for the development of tourist destinations and it is therefore fundamental to adequately increase the knowledge on its local ingredients, the quality of traditional cooking methods and the enjoyment of its dishes.