Two Canadian restaurants make the S. Pellegrino top 100
The much-anticipated list of S. Pellegrino World’s Best Restaurants 2010 was announced in London yesterday in front of the world’s finest chefs, most influential restaurateurs and members of the international press. It appears that two Canadian culinary gems have caught the eye of the academy, and one of them is in the GTA.
Rouge, in Calgary, placed 60th, and Langdon Hall, in Cambridge, placed 77th. To put these rankings into perspective, Canada hasn’t had a spot on the list since Eigensinn Farm in 2003. Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, the celebrity chef’s three-Michelin-star flagship establishment, which in the past has always landed in the top 15, dropped off the list completely.
Among other news from the list is that there is a new number one. Denmark’s Noma pushed traditional winners El Bulli and The Fat Duck down to second and third, respectively. The restaurant to climb the highest number of spots was New York’s Daniel.
The prestigious list was compiled from 4,030 votes cast by over 800 international leaders in the restaurant industry, who were asked to select their favourite dining establishments in which they had eaten over the past 18 months.
Paul Rogalski, chef and co-owner of Rouge, admits that he had no idea his restaurant was being critiqued for the list but said he hopes the recognition increases business not only for his restaurant, but also for the city. “We have a lot of great restaurants here, so to have this acknowledgment on the global scene will hopefully bring more people out this way.”
The list will be published in the May issue of Restaurant Magazine.
• The World’s Best Restaurant Awards [S. Pellegrino]
• Calgary restaurant among world’s 100 best [CBC]
• Calgary restaurant first in city to make list of the world’s top 100 [Calgary Herald]
Cambridge is not in the GTA, it’s just “not far from Toronto”, but not really in the GTA. They are even in a different Census Metropolitan Area, in the Kitchener CMA.
I’m surprised they didn’t say that Calgary was “just west of the GTA” too. Toronto Life is such a joke sometimes. Get a map.
I love Toronto Life magazine, but I think you need to look at a map, Cambridge is not in the GTA. Last time I checked the GTA stopped just outside of Milton. Cambridge is till a 1/2 hour west.
First thing that came to mind when I read this was “Cambridge is NOT in the GTA”. If Cambridge was some sort of hell hole there’s no way that Toronto Life would even want to claim it as part of the GTA.
Wow, the readers sure know how to clarify where the GTA limits are. But if they’ve ever been to said Langdon hall, they wouldn’t care it was “just outside” of the GTA.
I agree Ryan!
Hello peoples:
The ‘World’s 50 Best’ list constructed to show restaurants of note where San Pelligrino actually sells a lot of their waters worldwide. That is why Canadian restaurants are shunned so often, as we do not purchase enough San Pelligrino products.
The ‘Restaurant Magazine’ that features the ‘World’s 50 Best’ is not based on anything but this sales fact, seeing that San Pelligrino own the magazine and the rights to the supposedly worlds best restaurants. (It’s basically their own PR magazine, featuring 100 restaurants in major areas where they sell waters.)
Also of note: Langdon Hall are members of Relais & Chateaux, which does cross promotional work with San Pelligrino. So, this is probably the only main reason why Langdon Hall would be included on the list, as far as I can understand, because they don’t deserve to be on the list from a gastronomical P.O.V.
Lastly, resetaurant Rouge in Calgary probably was included because San Pelligrino is purchased a lot in Alberta…
Hello to you, Michael Brandt. Nice theory, but I’ve just recently been to three restaurants in the top 50, including 2 in the top ten, and none of them offered S. Pellegrino…
Anyways, the nice thing about the list is that Canadian restaurants are getting a bit of international recognition.
Recently visited Rouge. They do not sell bottled water. Just fantastic food.