Dabiz Muñoz, best chef in the world for the third consecutive year

With this third consecutive victory, the Madrid native confirms himself as the darling of a list where Spanish dominance is overwhelming, as he occupies five of the top ten positions and has up to 15 names in total. Also in the top 10 are Andoni Luis Aduriz (5), the Enjoy team (7) and Joan Roca (8), accompanied by international figures such as the Slovenian Ana Ros (3), the Danes René Redzepi (4) and Rasmus Munk (6), the South Korean Junghyun Park (9) or the Chilean Rodolfo Guzmán (10). From there, a dance of positions compared to last year for a handful of established figures: Ángel León remains at 13, the Torres brothers rise from 41 to 20, Eneko Atxa drops from 18 to 26, Quique Dacosta climbs three positions from from 33 to 30, Diego Guerrero drops from 38 to 42 and Paolo Casagrande drops more than 20 places and is placed at 48 after being 26 last year.

Bittor Arguinoniz also falls strongly, who was 19th in 2022 and is now in the second half of the table, at 51st. Paco Roncero goes from 36th to 60th and Paco Morales from 43rd to 82nd, while Fina Puigdevall and Martina Puigvert , mother and daughter at the head of Les Cols, resist in the last positions and even rise slightly, from 96 to 91. Martín Berasategui, which was 42 last year, disappear from the ranking, Dani García, Paco Pérez and Paulo Airaudo and remain Outside, despite being nominated, Rafa Zafra, Toni Romero, Elena Arzak, Pedro Sánchez, Mario Sandoval and Javier Olleros.

These departures are somewhat compensated by the meteoric rise of Albert Adrià, who enters directly into second position after the reopening of the Barcelona-based Enigma, which spent 27 months closed due to the pandemic. The chef was accompanied at the Mexican gala by his brother Ferran, who received the ‘Legend’ award and harangued his colleagues: “Chefs, cooks, you have the mission of helping the new generations to be extraordinary.” He also traveled to Yucatán Jordi Roca to collect the award for best pastry chef for his work at El Celler de Can Roca, Casa Cacao or Rocambolesc.

Its presence provides credibility to a list whose origins and operation are controversial, especially due to the disparity of positions compared to other more consolidated scales and due to suspicions that there is abundant ‘cooking’ in the preparation of the ranking. The Best Chef Awards project was born in 2015 by the Polish scientist Joanna Slusarczyk and the Italian gourmet Cristian Gadao and presented its first ranking in 2017. Since then it has been gaining international impact by satisfying the egos of chefs. Unlike guides like Michelin, which have a body of inspectors or lists like 50Best, which gauges the opinions of more than a thousand experts around the world, Best Chef Awards is based on the votes of the chefs themselves. .

The 100 winners of each year and another 100 candidates chosen by a very disparate committee of 180 ‘experts’ cast their votes, which in practice turns the gala into a popularity contest between colleagues. It is not clear whether it is necessary to have visited their restaurants to vote for one chef or another, because what it is about is recognizing the public projection of the chefs. After being held last year in Madrid, with the sponsorship of the City Council and the Community, this time it was the Yucatán region that rolled out the red carpet to host a ceremony that is also sold as a tourist attraction.