France Food Retains Premier World Rating - French restaurants reign supreme

France kept its place as the leading country in the world for high quality food, with 12 restaurants in the country recently judged amongst the top 50 on the planet. The list was compiled by the UK trade magazine ‘Restaurant’, which each year brings together a panel of over 600 food experts from around the globe to give their verdict. Top restaurant in the world for the second year running went to ‘El Bulli’, the Catalan restaurant located in Barcelona. In second place was the Fat Duck, the Heston Blumenthal table at Bray in the United Kingdom. Third place went to the inventive Pierre Gagnaire, at the Hôtel Balzac, Paris, the best of the French restaurants in the list. France also got two new entries, with ‘Taillevent’ and ‘Les Ambassadeurs’ in Paris joining the top 50. Highest French climber was ‘L'Ambroisie’, which moved up 17 places. Sadly, however, only two of the French restaurants are located outside of the Paris, that of Michel Bras in the Aveyron and Marie-Pierre and Michel Troisgros in Rhône-Alpes. The full list of French restaurants in the top 50 is as follows:

• Pierre Gagnaire, Paris
• Bras, Aveyron
• L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon, Paris
• Alain Ducasse, Plaza Athénée, Paris
• L'Astrance, Paris
• L'Ambroisie, Paris
• Troisgros, Rhône-Alpes
• Le Cinq, Paris
• L'Arpège, Paris
• Taillevent, Paris
• Bocuse, Paris
• Les Ambassadeurs, Paris