Congratulations to the Spanish Restaurants that came in the 100 Top Restaurants 2013, especially to the 3 in the Top 10 ........

1. El Celer de Can Roca in Girona (#2 last year)

4. Mugaritz in San Sebastion (#3 last year)

8. Arzak in San Sebastian (#8 last year)

26. Qulque in Costa Blanca (#40 last year)

44. Asador Etxebarria in Atxondo-Bizkala (#31 last year)

64. Martin Berasategul in Lasaret-Oria (not placed last year)

77. Tickets in Barcelona (not placed last year)

the full list available at http://www.theworlds50best.com/list/1-50-winners/

Looks like there are some good reasons for those from the South of the country to travel a bit more - or just give their Southern restaurants a kicking ?

To clarify: No. 26 - Quique DaCosta is in Denia on the C Blanca.

We have friends who went to Noma last year, said it was the most amazing experience they have had.

Do both; travel up here & give your restaurants a kicking, but in that order!!

Poor Fredbargate is up here on a 5 day trip; feel sorry for him as the weather is still atrocious for the time of year. We've had as much rain this year so far as in the whole of last year.
I'm in a tortilla competition tomorrow, but it won't win any prizes I'm sure.
Glad to see more Spanish restaurants among the top ones than French!!

When you read this thread or this one even kicking them will not be good enough.

However how does the Fat Duck , Bray get in after the trouble they had a year or so ago?

When you read the details you will see that the Academy of voters comprises 26 separate regions around the world. Each region has its own panel of 36 members including a chairperson to head it up. The panel is made up of food critics, chefs, restaurateurs and highly regarded ‘foodies’ - all instantly recognisable when you look at the photograph - not!!!!

It's cold in the wind but we are staying dry.

Let's put food into perspective.

We are in a "4 Star" hotel
The dining room has 38 tables but only 11 condiment sets

The wife got a bollocking for taking a set from the food area to our table

It bought dodgy shellfish, like all the other retailers, from Essex... how was it their fault?

The Fat Duck lost two of its talented chefs last year and it hit them really hard, I know Heston took some time off afterwards... maybe they are suffering from that?

Name & Shame Fred
Or are you waiting until you have completed the list and given them a roasting
??

many years ago stayed in a Hilton, had 22 items on the list

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandsty...duck-poisoning


Shellfish are off I'm afraid.

Doesn't make for very good reading, from a dodgy source,(or sauce as well), to failure to recognize and deal with the situation much more thoroughly and promptly.

I would hardly expect a place like the Essex coast and estuaries to be an ideal source for something like shellfish, bet they didn't mention that on the menu.

Once poisoned would be enough for me, I wouldn't risk going back, but there again it probably wouldn't be my cup of tea in the first place.

So after extensive tests, they finally identified the source, stopped buying from the suppliers and in the mean time they restricted the menu... Oh yeah, I can see how it was totally their fault.

Oh and the Essex coast provides some of the finest shellfish in the world.... just because you don't know something doesn't make it wrong or a lie.

Well the source of infection was traced to untreated human sewage which doesn't look particularly good for the Essex coast.
In any event I would have thought that the water itself would have been tested on a regular basis in order to safely harvest shellfish.

I get the impression that the restaurant was very slow to identify the likely cause of the problem and take action, especially when some of the staff were obviously affected as well and yet still allowed to continue to work in the kitchens.
Surely they would have quickly figured it out for themselves from what food they had been eating in common.

Do you know how many outlets supplied the shellfish to the public? Have a guess how many made the national press. Typical negative Brits... knock down the successful eh? At least if they are foreign we don't have to measure our own inadequacies against them eh?

Mistakes happen and they were quick to sort it out, but at the same time they are continually in the press for their amazing food and the marketing machine works well in their favor. Including HB himself and his weird at times and amazing food. So it's reasonable that when this sort of thing happens that they are also targeted in the press, negatively. After all for the HUGE price you pay you should expect near-perfection. It is very rare for Michelin starred resto's to have this level of problem, so this makes it newsworthy also. Part of the daily life of these resto's is that they are reviewed in the press, TV, Michelin etc etc

So for me it's 'par for the course' IMHO and I believe it still takes ages to book a table so they are doing fine. In fact you can bet they are putting in even greater checks as a result of this 'learning experience' so you may get a better experience, if you can afford it. Experience =best teacher etc.

Jon

What I found funny about the whole thing was that over 500 cases came forward with food poisoning. By their own admission they hadn't even fed that many people during the period in question. Kind of tells you all you need to know right?