Head of the table

Chinese cuisine enjoys unprecedented success at La Liste 2019's awards, Li Yingxue reports.

Sichuan cold noodles with shredded chicken, beef in red-wine sauce, dongpo roast duck with lotus-leaflike pancakes and Sichuan-pepper lobster ... the small servings were devoured before all the guests could sample all of the dishes.

The event was a wine party before the award ceremony of La Liste 2019 in Paris, where four restaurants from China, Japan, South Korea and Morocco presented delicacies from their respective countries.

Meizhou Dongpo's founder, Wang Gang, led his team to introduce Chinese cuisine to the guests, most of whom are celebrated chefs from around the world. He also presented panda puppets holding bags of tea from Sichuan province.

La Liste 2019 revealed its list of the 1,000 best restaurants around the world in Paris on Dec 3.

The list features 134 Chinese restaurants, including 22 from Hong Kong and four from Macao-the second-largest number among the 64 participating countries. That's seven more than last year, when China surpassed France for the first time.

Japan and France this year ranked No 1 and 3 with 148 and 116 restaurants, respectively.