Watch Eric Ripert And #1 Chefs Dance Up A Storm At World’s 50 Best Restaurants Awards In S'pore

Restaurants in the top 3 (especially #1) instantly receive the kind of media attention once reserved only for movie stars. And then there’s the exponential increase in business. “Within 24 hours of the ceremony, we got 2 million booking requests,” Catalan chef Joan Roca, whose restaurant El Celler de Can Roca ranked #1 in 2013 and 2015, told Time magazine. “We’re still feeling the impact,” he added.

Enter this year’s winner, Mirazur from France. Third on 2018’s list, some cynics argue that it might’ve topped this year’s edition partly because of the controversial new ruling that disqualifies all former #1 winners from ever participating in future editions again.

So that excludes last year’s champ, chef Massimo Bottura’s popular restaurant Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy (it was also #1 in 2016). As well as five other restaurants: Spain’s El Celler De Can Roca (chef-owner Joan pictured), America’s one-time winner Eleven Madison Park and two-time winner The French Laundry, one-time champ The Fat Duck from the UK, as well as the now-defunct El Bulli from Spain, Ferran Adria’s seminal five-time winner.

Instead all of them have been shoved to a collection called ‘The Best of the Best’. Great if you’ve snagged top spot recently like Osteria Francescana, not so fab if the last time you were numero uno was ages ago (1995 for The Fat Duck, which isn’t even on the list now; or Eleven Madison Park, which was #1 in 2017 but fell to #4 last year).

Chef Daniel Humm of 2017's #1 restaurant told Time magazine that he's “at total peace” with the fact that Eleven Madison Park is no longer eligible for the list. But he admits: “I’ve got competition in my blood, so I’ve always liked going into that room [to compete]. It’s like in basketball when it goes down to buzzer and there’s a guy taking a three point shot. I always want to be the guy with the ball.”

Interestingly, Copenhagen’s Noma, which topped the list four times, was allowed to participate this year after it closed its original restaurant in 2017 and reopened last year as Noma 2.0 in a new location with a refreshed menu. Widely tipped to take the #1 spot again for the fifth time, it was instead displaced by France's Mirazur.

This new ruling is a doubled-edged sword. From here on out, new champs are forever immortalised as #1, never to suffer the ignominy or reputational losses of tumbling far down the list into the realm of has-beens. So if your restaurant isn’t exactly the best in the world but you happened to have gotten there on a lucky break, then you've struck the lottery in the F&B universe. But if you’re a culinary virtuoso who ups his game with each passing year, then you might feel like Michael Phelps if he were banned from competing in the pool after snagging his first gold medal.

So, Argentinian-Italian chef Mauro Colagreco, 42, a bashful bull of a man who speaks only a smattering of English, was thrust into the spotlight on 25 June. His sweet reticence, pure joy and touching incredulity at the press conference following the list's announcement is in stark contrast to the smooth, slightly cocky confidence of Massimo Bottura (the rakish, dapper Italian certainly has what it takes to be a celebrity chef). Mauro moved to France in his twenties and opened modern French fine-diner Mirazur 13 years ago, located steps away from the Italian border on the Côte d'Azur. There, he serves “delicately flavoured dishes imbued with the essence of the Côte d'Azur via local French and Italian ingredients.” Obviously, his life, and the lives of those working for him will never be the same again.

Massimo Bottura’s (extreme right) restaurant Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy, was twice-ranked #1 on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list, including last year. While most chefs at the ceremony suited up in tuxedos, the casually chic, charismatic, likeable 56-year-old sauntered up rock star style in a T-shirt and a rose-emblazoned blazer. The man has after all, teamed up with Gucci to open a restaurant, and he has a weakness for Maison Martin Margiela sweaters, New Balance sneakers and Bottega Veneta bags. He’s no longer behind the #1 restaurant in the world, and he can never compete again because of the list’s new ruling. But he’s fine with that. He tells us at the reception: “I love to compete. But I ask myself: Do I have to be king of the world all the time? The past few years, it has always been my restaurant and El Cellar De Can Roca at #1. Does it always have to be us? Give others a chance!” What about the article in Time magazine which claimed the rule was initiated by former #1 chefs who wanted to protect their reputations should their restaurants fall from top position? He replies sardonically, “I didn’t know we were that powerful — wow, we [top chefs] had so much say in the 50 Best Restaurants rankings? I wish!” On a lighter note, he’s been to Singapore 10 times: “I love it here — especially the street food and culture”.

Before the awards, there were rumours that maybe, just maybe, the Euro-centric international edition of the awards would have an Asian restaurant top the list at last. There have long been complaints that most of the over 1,000 restaurateurs, chefs and food journalists that form the voting panel of the global edition of the 50 Best list are based in Europe, with little or no representation in Asia. Says a chatty Gaggan Anand of his eponymous four-time World’s Best Restaurant in Asia to us: “When I came here in 2013, I was no one, I was a dark horse. Tonight, I’m still a dark horse. I’ve not come here to win, but to lose everything that I’ve done. Because I’m closing my restaurant next year. If I get it, I take it. If somebody else gets it, I clap for the person. There’s no pressure. But if I were to [take #1 position], it would mean that I have become an inspiration to every Asian chef, that you are able to represent your cuisine and make a difference”. In a surprise announcement post-event, he shared that he had resigned from his post as chef at his restaurant. He told the Straits Times that he had resigned as an employee due to differences with other shareholders of the restaurant (it inched up a spot to #4 this year), but remains a shareholder and will continue to helm the restaurant for the next couple of months.

His plan to open a new eatery with Japanese chef Tsuyoshi Fukuyama in Fukuoka post-Gaggan is still on track. He told the newspaper that "Mirazur was #3 last year and #1 this year. My cue will come in two years' time, but I'm still closing next year. My life cannot be just for the awards. Otherwise, it will be a cancer in my life."

In response to our question about the new rule that excludes all former #1 winners in future lists, the chef of The Fat Duck (#1 in 2005) and Dinner (#83 on this year’s list) says: “I’m not competing, I’ve stopped competing for years. I’ve already won all there is to win — World’s Best Restaurant, the Lifetime Achievement award. There can never really be just one best restaurant. Or 50 best, really. It’s all emotion based and not just linear,” he insists emphatically. “It’s like there’s no best pizza — there might be your favourite and your favourite might change, depending on your mood. That’s the beauty of food.” Does he think his restaurants The Fat Duck and Dinner having been on the list is a curse or a blessing? “Lists have helped up to a point, because it’s exposed areas that may be forgotten about and the young access the opportunity to get recognition. The downside is that if a restaurant comes in at number five, then the next year they go down [despite] the chefs having worked their socks off. And that’s when I say you should take the list for what it is, it’s had an amazing overall positive effect, but you cannot just have 50 best restaurants. That’s just alienating [the others].”

It’s not every day that you get to see three world-class chefs party ike it's 1999. A couple of hours into the post-awards party at nightclub Marquee, we were treated to this delicious spectacle: a portly chef Mauro of the newly-crowned Mirazur ecstatically thrashing his arms about on the podium in front of a delighted audience, like a comical Euro version of Kollywood star Rajinikanth.IMG_3317-gbjf7g3z9vyiuw8xz10pazort1d9uba1-1561827592.MP4_84MzgzaTE6F3zKdq1ees9EbgeCQGdgX-Adding even more hilarity to the situation was the fact that he was flanked by the usually staid, dignified chef Joan, 55, of two-time #1 lister El Celler de Can Roca restaurant in Spain, who did some kind of a bemused twist, and chef Daniel Humm of Eleven Madison Park, who bopped around like a slightly embarrassed teen at his first party. At one point, the three even did a sort of absurd cha-cha-cha train to the trance music. Pure gold.

But that’s not all, shortly after the three dancing culinary stars retire offstage, we spied a tall, snowy-haired man in a black T-shirt and jeans moving vigorously on the dance floor. He pumps a finger skywards as he shimmies with wild abandon. We don’t know why, but we can't tear our eyes away from him. Then he spins around, grinning, and we see his face. O. M. G. — it’s Eric Ripert — TV star, chef of New York's acclaimed Le Bernardin restaurant and Anthony Bourdain’s pal. Oh, what a night.

Photos: Alvin Teo, World's 50 Best Restaurants