Overview
First Melbourne hosted Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck, then Sydney got the upper hand by coaxing Rene Redzepi to bring his world-renowned restaurant Noma to Barangaroo for a few months. Now Melbourne has one-upped Australia's biggest city to take back the culinary crown, nabbing the rights to host next year's World's 50 Best Restaurants awards.
The announcement was made by the World's 50 Best Restaurants group editor William Drew ahead the 2016 awards, which are being held in New York tomorrow night. It's a pretty big deal for little ol' Melbourne (and Tourism Australia) as it's only the second time the awards will be held outside of London.
"After hosting 14 successful editions of The World's 50 Best Restaurants awards in London, we feel the time is right to make the event truly global," said Drew in a press release. "2017 in Australia will be the second time we have held the awards outside of London, following New York this year. There's so much international interest in Australia as a food destination, it's exciting for us to have the opportunity to take the events program to this unique country." Well, shucks.
If you're not familiar with the awards, they're the ranking that everyone uses when talking about the best restaurants in the world. Last year Spain's El Celler de Can Roca was awarded the number one spot, while Noma has been a former list-topper multiple times. 2015 gave special mention to Melbourne's Attica and Brae, as well as Sydney's Quay and Sepia, which probably has a lot to do with why they've decided to come Down Under in 2017.