Aussie restaurants fail to impress, not so Neil Perry
Australian chef Neil Perry won the Woodford Reserve Icon Award 2024.
While no Australian establishment made the list of the world’s 50 best restaurants, one Aussie chef was recognised this week.
The World’s 50 Best Restaurants recognises just that, the best restaurants in the world, but it also dishes out individual awards.
Neil Perry is a legend in Australia and is celebrated around the world.
This year he received the Woodford Reserve Icon Award, which “recognises an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the hospitality industry worthy of global recognition”.
“For me, it’s always been about hospitality through generosity, it’s been about caring,” Perry said at the awards at Las Vegas.
“That’s the philosophy that we’ve run the restaurant by. It’s about making sure we care about each other, the team is everything. If we’re ready and willing to function together and we’re looking after each other, great things can happen.”
The inaugural edition of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants way back in 2002 featured the original Rockpool in Sydney and it remained on the list for several years.
Perry opened Rockpool in 1989 and went on to open the steak-focused Rockpool Bar & Grill in both Melbourne and Perth.
“Perry is known throughout Australia, and by gastronomes across the globe, because he helped challenge stereotypes around his country’s food culture,” the awards said of Perry.
“Australians love good food and drink: But we’re not just talking pies, lager and barbies. This is a country with one of the most sophisticated, diverse and under-rated restaurant scenes in the world.”
In addition to curating Qantas’ inflight menu and penning several cookbooks, Perry has opened Margaret, in Sydney’s Double Bay.
Next door to Margaret is Next Door, a wine bar owned by Perry and his wife Samantha and Baker Bleu bakery.
The best restaurants in the world
If you want to dine at the best restaurants in the world, then you need to go to Spain.
Disfrutar in Barcelona was ranked No.1 on the list.
It’s said to be special because its “combination of brilliantly imaginative dishes, unsurpassed technical mastery and playful presentation results in the dining experience of a lifetime”.
However, Disfrutar wasn’t the only Spanish restaurant on the list, in fact, the country dominated the top 10.
In second place was Asador Etxebarri in Atxondo in Spain’s Basque County while Madrid’s Diverxo was ranked fourth.
Top 10 of the 50 best restaurants in the world:
- Disfrutar, Barcelona
- Asador Etxebarri, Atxondo
- Table by Bruno Verjus, Paris
- Diverxo, Madrid
- Maido, Lima
- Atomix, New York
- Quintonil, Mexico City
- Alchemist, Copenhagen
- Gaggan, Bangkok
- Don Julio, Buenos Aires
A full list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants can be found here.
It appears one Sydney restaurant squeezed into the top 100. Saint Peter, which is located in Paddington, was ranked 98th on the list for 2024.
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