The World's 50 Best Restaurants

It will surprise no-one to learn that this list, sponsored by San Pellegrino, is new to me, but I gather that mention in the list can change a restaurant's fortunes overnight. Of particular interest to me is the plentiful scope for corruption provided by a system which does not actually oblige voters to visit any of the restaurants just as it does not prevent jury members dining free of charge in candidate restaurants.
When it was suggested that the prospect of a free lunch might, in a manner of speaking and as it were, "influence" voters, the "50 Best Restaurants" organisation replied: "These are sophisticated people who eat out frequently and are up to date on cuisine. Do you really think they're going to be swayed by a €100 lunch?"
Well, I don't know about you, but I myself might allow 100 euros to colour my judgement....

If you're interested, the list of the 50 best restaurants for 2011 is to be published this Monday: http://www.theworlds50best.com/

In the meantime, here is the Top Ten for the year 2009. No real shocks here except perhaps for a surprise entry at number 4 and again at number 9:

Rank	Restaurant	Country
1	El Bulli	Roses en Cala, Spain
2	The Fat Duck	Bray, UK
3	Noma	Copenhagen, Denmark
4	Subway	Rue de la Convention, Paris
5	El Celler de Can Roca	Girona, Spain
6	Per Se	Columbus Circle, New York City, USA
7	Bras	France
8	Arzak	San Sebastian, Spain
9	Pierre Gagnaire	Rue Gamma, Paris, France
10	Alinea	Chicago, USA