100 restaurants in China make it onto exclusive list

One hundred restaurants in China have made it onto the list of the world's top 1,000 eateries.

The guide was compiled in La Liste, the French gastronomic classification, which was unveiled on Monday in Paris.

Philippe Faure, founder of La Liste, said the 100 restaurants were located on the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao.

The first edition of La Liste was launched in December 2015, with the ambition to create a new world gastronomic reference.

The Swiss restaurant named the best in the world last year remained in the top 10 of the ranking despite the suicide of its star chef, who killed himself weeks after lifting the honor.

Benoit Violier, 44, shot himself in January seven weeks after receiving the award, but his widow Brigitte vowed that the restaurant would remain open.

The Restaurant de l'Hotel de Ville at Crissier near Lausanne came joint fourth and has also retained its maximum three-star Michelin Guide rating.

While French chef Guy Savoy topped this year's rankings for his Paris restaurant in la Monnaie, the old French national mint, Japanese restaurants were top overall.

Two Tokyo institutions made the top 10: the minuscule Kyo Aji, and Kyubey, whose sushi is renowned for being both "extraordinary and reasonably priced", La Liste said.

Two New York restaurants were up there alongside them, double Emmy-award-winning US television chef Eric Ripert's Le Bernardin fish restaurant - which came joint second - and Jean-Georges in Trump Tower.

Italy's Osteria Francescana in Modena - which topped the 50 Best rankings - came joint third, with La Liste praising not only its inventive use of the local Parmigiano Reggiano cheese but also "its deep commitment to fighting food waste".

Restaurants in Italy also came out best overall for value for money, it said.

La Liste bills itself as a "guide of the guides", pulling together reviews from almost 400 guidebooks, newspapers and online sites from TripAdvisor to the New York Times and the prestigious Michelin rankings.

A full list of the results can be found via the La Liste app.

(China Daily 12/07/2016 page12)