The World’s 50 Best Restaurants were announced on Monday night at a gala evening at London’s Guildhall. Chef Luke Dale-Roberts of The Test Kitchen received the One to Watch Award, one of five special awards, and both The Tasting Room in Franschhoek and The Test Kitchen made it onto the list for the Top 100 restaurants in the world, coming in at number 53 and 61 respectively.
 
The One to Watch Award goes to a restaurant not yet in the Top 50, but which Restaurant Magazine feels has immense potential.
 
“The restaurant in question opened just two and a half years ago, headed by a chef of immense talent and no little experience. It embodies a new generation of gastronomic destinations which offer imaginative, original food, but in a relaxed informal setting,” said host Mark Durden-Smith, when introducing the The Test Kitchen.
 
Both The Tasting Room and The Test Kitchen feature on Eat Out’s Top 10; The Test Kitchen holds the 2012 Restaurant of the Year Award, while chef Margot Janse of The Tasting Room is Eat Out’s reigning Chef of the Year.
 
This year’s number one spot in the World’s 50 Best Restaurants was taken by Spanish restaurant El Celler De Can Roca, knocking Copenhagen’s Noma off the spot it has occupied for the past three years. Osteria Francescana jumped up two spots from number 5 to take the number 3 position. Chef-owner Massimo Bottura visited South Africa last year to speak at the inaugural Eat Out DStv Food Network Conference. Congratulations Massimo!
 
Sponsored by San Pellegrino and Acqua Panna, the World's 50 Best Restaurants is an annual awards program, judged by 900 international judges. The Top 50 list was leaked just hours before the ceremony by Spanish newspaper El Imparcial, but that didn’t dim the excitement for those glued to the Fine Dining Lovers Twitter feed, or live stream on Youtube.
 
Want a peek inside The Test Kitchen? Here’s a short, one-minute video of the Cape restaurant.