Asador Etxebarri Takes No. 1 as 50 Best Chefs Map 2027 Dining Trends

Asador Etxebarri, the grill-focused restaurant in Atxondo — a Basque village of fewer than 1,500 inhabitants — was named the World's Best Restaurant 2026 on 4 November at the Teatro Municipal de Lima in Peru, and the chefs gathered there say the ranking signals five concrete shifts coming to fine dining in 2027.

The World's 50 Best Restaurants list is built on anonymous nominations from more than 1,000 industry experts. This year's ceremony put the spotlight on Lima, where Pía León's Kjolle placed seventh, making it the top restaurant in the host country.

What does traceability mean for menus?

León, chef-owner of Kjolle, said sourcing transparency will move from marketing language to documented practice. "To me, traceability means understanding where each ingredient comes from, who produces it, and the knowledge behind it," she told Condé Nast Traveller. "Many of the products we work with come from local producers and communities who have kept their techniques alive for many years. As cooks, we have a responsibility to recognise their work and the value of what they grow."

Josh Niland, chef and co-owner of Sydney's Saint Peter — number 50 on the list and Best Restaurant in Oceania — went further. He called full disclosure of provenance "non-negotiable," tying it directly to menu pricing. "If you're writing a menu right now, let alone 10 years from now, I want to know why I'm paying $60, $70 for this chicken. Where is it from?" he said. Saint Peter, founded by Niland and his wife Julie Niland and built on whole-fish cookery, already uses QR codes on the menu that let guests watch a fisherman pull a fish from the water. "We need to be incredibly transparent about our labor, how we're paying people, like where things are from, all that," Niland said.

How is climate change rewriting seasonality?

At Kadeau in Copenhagen — number eight, a three-Michelin-star restaurant since June and this year's Highest Climber after jumping from number 41 in 2025 — head chef and co-owner Nicolai Nørregaard is adjusting both sourcing and preservation around volatile weather.

"Some meals are shit," Nørregaard said, "or some ingredients that we are relying on [are], so we need to change plans. But then maybe something else is in abundance, and then we just switch to that direction."

The kitchen team — which includes chef Francisco "Pancho" Cardenas and partner Kyumin Hahn — draws on a garden on the Danish island of Bornholm and nearby foraging during the growing season, adding nutrients and water to the soil to improve yield. In colder months it cooks from preserves, and even that planning horizon has lengthened. A dry year may yield few pine cones; a wet year produces abundance. "We sometimes need to think ahead and plan two years in advance," Nørregaard said. "So we have to preserve something for more than one season because it might not come the next season."

The practical consequence for diners: no two tasting menus may be identical, even at the same restaurant. The shift extends adaptations already underway — reduced reliance on meat and broader waste-reduction programs.

Is simplicity the new luxury?

James Gaag, executive chef of La Colombe in South Africa's Constantia Valley — number 35 and Best Restaurant in Africa, owned by chef-proprietor Scot Kirton — is cutting courses, ingredients and table time. "We used to put 100 ingredients on each plate, and I think the longer I run the restaurant, the more confident I am in putting less on the plate," he said. His direction: "less courses, fresher courses, lighter courses, less time at the table."

Jeremy Chan, who owns London's Michelin-starred Ikoyi (number 48) with co-founder Iré Hassan-Odukale, framed the same shift in service terms. "Fine dining is about creating a refined experience, rather than a sense of preciousness or formality," he said.

At Odette in Singapore — number 15, three Michelin stars — chef de cuisine Sheng Xiong would happily drop white-glove service. "We treat everyone coming in like [they are] coming back home as a family member," he said, noting that older Singaporean guests initially didn't understand the approach but now prefer it to a stiff environment.

Why are remote restaurants winning?

Niko Romito, who co-owns three-Michelin-starred Reale (number 27) with his sister Cristiana Romito in a 16th-century monastery in Abruzzo, Italy, said his remote location once limited the business — tourists arrived only at the tail-end of food tours. "Today, it's the exact opposite," he said. "This very constraint pushed me to create a style of cooking that transcends the distance, making the journey fully justified. Abruzzo is beginning to emerge as a top destination for tourists."

The list backs him: beyond Etxebarri, number 23 Vyn sits in a southern Swedish fishing village of about 7,000 people, and Naar — number 50 on the list alongside Saint Peter, and winner of the Sustainable Restaurant Award — draws diners into the Himalayan foothills for open-flame cooking. Other high Asian placements include Gaggan in Bangkok at number 2 (Best Restaurant in Asia), Wing in Hong Kong at number 5 and the Chairman, also Hong Kong, at number 6.

Expect the 2027 rankings and the menus behind them to reward documented sourcing, shorter and more volatile menus, and restaurants that make remoteness itself part of the value proposition.