The World’s 50 Best Restaurants for 2018
Chef Mossimo Buttura is back on top in the culinary world. His Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy (above) was the No. 1 restaurant at the World’s 50 Best Restaurant awards, which were announced earlier this month in Bilbao, Spain. The three-Michelin-star restaurant dropped to the second spot last year, but had been No. 1 in 2016. Osteria Francescana, which features 10- and 12-course tasting menus, edged out Spain’s El Celler de Can Roca, below, which held the title in 2013 and 2015. Spain had two other restaurants in the top 10—Mugaritz in San Sebastián and Asador Etxebarri in Axpe.
Rounding out the top three is Mirazur, a two-Michelin-star restaurant in Menton, France. Last year’s No. 1, Eleven Madison Park, fell to the fourth spot. Co-owned by chef Daniel Humm and restaurateur Will Guidara, the New York last summer for months-long renovation before re-opening in October 2017. And Gaggan in Bangkok became the first Asian restaurant to crack the top five on the World’s 50 Best List. Individual honors were given out to Dan Barber of Blue Hill at Stone Barns in New York, who was voted the Chefs’ Choice Award by his peers. (His restaurant took the No. 12 spot on the list.) And in the always controversial Best Female Chef Award, Clare Smyth of Core restaurant in London was given the honor—but amazingly her restaurant did not make the list.
Below, the top ten restaurants in the world. To see the full list of winners, feast your eyes here.
1. Osteria Francescana (Modena, Italy)
2. El Celler de Can Roca (Girona, Spain)
3. Mirazur (Menton, France)
4. Eleven Madison Park (New York, USA)
5. Gaggan (Bangkok, Thailand)
6. Central (Lima, Peru)
7. Maido (Lima, Peru)
8. Arpège; Paris, France
9. Mugaritz (San Sebastián, Spain)
10. Asador Etxebarri (Axpe, Spain)
Your guide to luxury travel—and life’s other indulgences.
Meet the 21-Year-Old CEO Revolutionizing Luxury Air Travel
Zander Futernick always dreamed of becoming a pilot. For his eighth birthday, his father built him a little airport with a concourse and model airplanes—and when they traveled, he would venture into the cockpit at the end of each flight. “I’d sit in the seat and they’d give me my wings,” he recalls.
Then in 2016, at just 20 years old, Futernick founded ZED Aerospace: a Miami-based startup dedicated to developing innovative in-flight technologies, funded by investors from the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. The company’s first product, AURA, aims to bridge the gap between commercial transport and private jet charter services, promising to deliver ultra-luxurious air travel at relatively affordable rates. “Critically, what makes AURA so different—and really, where the concept began—is getting rid of commercial airports,” he says.
Operated by Presidential Aviation, each AURA plane has two cabins: FIRST, above, which accommodates 21 passengers and boasts the most leg room and widest seats of any commercial first-class in the United States—and WAVE, below, the company’s signature offering. Featuring only eight seats, “WAVE is supposed to resemble the experience of a private jet at a fraction of the cost of any other similar type of service out there today,” Futernick explains.
AURA members, or “KeyHolders,” can book unlimited flights and enjoy fixed fares on all routes, along with preferred seating and a flexible cancelation policy. KeyHolders, Futernick says, play an important role in fine-tuning the service. “I take time every day to ask them how they discovered AURA and what they’d like to see in our program,” he says. “In the two weeks since we launched, we’ve had an immense outpour of support.”
Initiation requires paying a one-time fee of $700 and a monthly fee of $250 (though those who sign up before July 1 are entitled to a $100-per-month key for life and an initiation fee waiver). By comparison, JetSmarter—AURA’s largest competitor—has a $3,000 initiation fee and a $4,950 annual fee for individual memberships.
One-way ticket prices for KeyHolders range from $280 to $580 for FIRST and $600 to $1,180 for WAVE, with unfixed fares for non-members (who don’t have to pay a monthly fee) starting at $560 and $1,200, respectively.
For now, Futernick wants to focus on growing the company domestically. But his long-term vision is far more ambitious. “I have something called the ZED Aerospace promise, which is that we’re not going to cross the ocean until we can do so supersonically,” he says. “That’s where I see the future of AURA—when the time is right, we will do it faster than anybody else and expand to be exclusively supersonic.”
Hold off on calling room service—let Alexa do it for you. This week Amazon announced that it is partnering with Marriott to feature its Echo smart speakers in select hotels. The new hospitality initiative will allow guests to ask Alexa to request housekeeping or contact the concierge for a lunch recommendation. The only question is: what do you tip a device?
See Christo’s Mysterious Floating Sculpture in London’s Hyde Park
Christo’s newest art installation The London Mastaba in London’s Hyde Park has been described as an “alien mothership” and a “giant geometric bath toy” in the British press. For the next three months the 7,506 horizontally stacked 55-gallon barrels will rest atop a floating platform, stretching 20 meters into the sky and 30 meters wide. The fulgent pink, red and blue sculpture—which weighs 600 tons—will remain on Serpentine Lake until September 23.
“The colors will transform with the changes in the light and its reflection on the Serpentine Lake will be like an abstract painting,” explained Christo, the enigmatic 83-year-old Bulgarian-born artist when launching his new work of art. “It has been a pleasure to work with The Royal Parks to realize The London Mastaba and with our friends at the Serpentine Galleries to create an exhibition showing Jeanne-Claude’s and my 60-year history of using barrels in our work.”
“Mastaba”—which means “bench” in Arabic—is a reference to the shape of this flat-roofed trapezoidal pyramid that’s as tall as the Sphinx in Egypt. Ambitious, yes, but this work is simply a test of a piece Christo aims to build in Abu Dhabi, measuring roughly eight times as high—a dream he’s held onto since 1977. The piece itself was constructed over a two-month period on the banks of the Serpentine, each barrel crane-lifted into place before being floated out onto the lake, held down by 32 six-tonne anchors. If it sounds like no mean feat, it’s because it was not. Christo spent a year securing the relevant permits from Hyde Park, leaving him with only two and a half months to install the work—slowed down at times by the 70 trucks it took to deliver the materials driving only about a mile an hour so as not to disturb the park goers.
During the opening ceremony for the work last week, Justine Simons, Deputy Mayor for Culture and Creative Industries, said: “I’m delighted that this major new work by Christo has a home in the capital this summer. The striking sculpture in the Serpentine Lake is the first work by this internationally acclaimed artist in the UK. I encourage Londoners and visitors to come down and enjoy world-class art for free in the gorgeous surroundings of Hyde Park. It shows once again that London is open to people, ideas and creativity.”
