Denmark's Noma named world's best restaurant

LONDON -- A Danish restaurant whose menu has featured moss, lichen and other earthy northern ingredients has topped a list of the world's best restaurants for a second year.

Copenhagen's Noma, run by chef Rene Redzepi, gained first place in the annual S. Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurant Awards, announced Monday.

Redzepi has built an international reputation with his "neo-Nordic" cooking, which uses indigenous ingredients such as snails, sea buckthorn and wild herbs. Dishes on the current menu include picked vegetables and bone marrow and "oysters and the ocean."

William Drew, editor of Restaurant magazine, said Redzepi's approach was "redefining Nordic cuisine."

Spanish restaurants El Celler de Can Roca, in Girona, and Mugaritz, in the Basque region near the French border, took second and third places. Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy, came fourth.

The Fat Duck, Heston Blumenthal's temple to snail porridge, licorice-poached salmon and other products of "molecular gastronomy," was the highest-ranked British restaurant, in fifth place.

Chicago's Alinea was the highest-placed North American restaurant for a second year, in sixth place. New York's Per Se placed 10th.

The top 10 was dominated by restaurants in Europe, but the list includes restaurants from 20 countries, including Peru, China, Russia and Mexico.

The awards are organized by Restaurant magazine and rankings are selected by more than 800 industry experts, critics and chefs.

The Top 10

1. Noma, Copenhagen, Denmark

2. El Celler de Can Roca, Girona, Spain

3. Mugaritz, San Sebastian, Spain

4. Osteria Francescana, Modena, Italy

5. The Fat Duck, Bray, Britain

6. Alinea, Chicago, United States

7. D.O.M., Sao Paolo, Brazil

8. Arzak, San Sebastian, Spain

9. Le Chateaubriand, Paris France

10. Per Se, New York, United States

www.worlds50best.com