The world's Top 100 eating experiences

It could be about to get very bitchy again in London’s best kitchens.

Gordon Ramsay suffered fresh ignominy last night when his three-star Michelin restaurant dropped out of the world’s Top 100 eating experiences, while his former protégé made his first appearance only six months after opening his first solo restaurant after a very public falling-out between the pair.

Days after reports that boil-in-the-bag dishes were served at the chef’s gastropubs, Ramsay’s Hospital Road restaurant in London, thirteenth in last year’s list, missed out on a place in the 2009 San Pellegrino world restaurant awards. Yet Marcus Wareing, who opened his restaurant at the Berkeley Hotel after an acrimonious split with his former friend, has made a dramatic entry on the list at No 52.

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Wareing, 39, told The Times: “I’m now knocking on the door and it’s a great privilege. I hope it’s because people are now seeing me as an individual chef. The restaurant is starting to feel like one with a patron in the kitchen. It has got a sense of place and I believe every great restaurant has to have a heartbeat and a soul.”

The chef’s relationship with Ramsay is still described by insiders as “poisonous” but yesterday Wareing said that he had “not seen Gordon Ramsay for six months but I would like one day to sit down and have a coffee with him”.

El Bulli topped this year’s list, with Ferran Adrià, the king of avant-garde chefs, crowned best in the world for the fourth year running for his restaurant at Roses on the Costa Brava. El Bulli was given the edge over Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck restaurant, which this year retains its ranking as second best in the world.

After a turbulent period when the venue in Bray, Berkshire, was forced to close after a food poisoning scare affected 527 diners, it was some welcome news for the beleaguered chef. The Health Protection Agency is still investigating problems at the restaurant, with a report due shortly.

Blumenthal said: “I needed some good news, that is for sure. It has been a difficult period but all I can say is the food we’re serving now is better than we’ve ever done. Since the trouble, we have looked at every single element of the menu and we have a consistent team of chefs and staff.”

He also said that his cooking had moved on and he was keen to offer diners a spectacle when they ate. “I had to go back to studying dishes served 200 to 300 years ago for the recent TV series, Feast, and I was struck that then food was the only spectacle, as well as being delicious. There was no TV or video games. I intend to introduce more sensory aspects to my menu. I am going to do the mock turtle soup and I want a flaming sorbet and might even find a magician to set it aflame at the table.”

It has been a bad year for British restaurants, with only four in the Top 50. Le Gavroche, run by Michel Roux Jr, fell down from 22 last year to 58, whereas the Waterside Inn in Bray, ranked 70 last year, has also been voted out of the Top 100.

Fergus Henderson’s St John restaurant in Clerkenwell, Central London, moved up two places from 16 to 14. He is the ultimate chef’s chef and will be honoured today when he has to serve lunch for the world’s finest chefs.

The rankings are compiled by a team of 806 judges, mainly food writers, critics and chefs, and are published in Restaurant magazine.

Paul Wootton, the editor, was particularly shocked by the judges’ drubbing of Ramsay — even though his Maze restaurant has just made it at 91 in the Top 100. He said: “It does seem to be a bit of an anomaly and I can’t tell you for sure why some voters have chosen not to vote for Gordon Ramsay this year. I think there may be a feeling among part of the restaurant industry and the foodie fraternity that some of the superchefs with large empires of restaurants are spreading themselves too thin.

“Restaurant Gordon Ramsay continues to be a great restaurant and we should remember it remains the only three-Michelin-star restaurant in London.”

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