The E(l)bullient Ferran Adria. Photograph: Sophia Evans
Let's just wrap up the 50 Best Restaurants In The World story, with a quick dispatch from last night's event at London's mildly intimidating Freemason's Hall (check out the men's toilets if you ever get a chance; a fantasy in porcelain). To almost nobody's surprise El Bulli took the top spot, with the Fat Duck second and Pierre Gagnaire third.
Which is exactly as it was last year. So top marks, at least, for consistency, if rather fewer for excitement. Ferran Adria marked the occasion by making a speech which was almost as long as one of his tasting menus, at the end of which he called for all his fellow Spanish chefs to take to the stage. A nice gesture, and a delicious way to slap the French culinary establishment around the chops. Because, while it's true France had more entries - 11 in all, to Spain's seven - Spain had more than any other country in the top 10.
And looking at the Spanish list - not just El Bulli, but Arzak, Mugaritz, El Celler de Can Roca, Martin Berasategui, Con Fabes and Asador Etxebarri - it's more obvious than ever that Spain is now the heartland of cutting edge gastronomy. If it's edible, can be freeze-dried, whipped up with lecithin and then projected into your mouth from a fire extinguisher a Spaniard will do it.
What was most striking about the whole affair - the huge projector screens, the wisps of dry ice, the thumping, grandiose music - was how serious it was taken by the media. Though not the British media. We couldn't move last night for Spanish TV crews there to record the event.
The British contribution to the list, meanwhile, was a little more low key, with just five entries, though Rose Prince in the Telegraph thinks we can be proud of that, if less so of our general food culture.
Two of those British entries, however, are absurd, and I say that as the chair of the UK judging panel. Both Hakkasan and Nobu are great restaurants but the notion that the best Chinese and Japanese restaurants in the world are in the British capital is ludicrous. As I said yesterday, that's democracy for you.
