Sincerest congratulations to the incomparable Massimo Bottura.

His Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy, was anointed last night as the best restaurant in the world at the New York release party for Restaurant Magazine’s annual list of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants.  At Canada’s 100 Best, we are firmly of the opinion that Bottura couldn’t have done it without Jess Rosval, the young Canadian chef de partie who runs the Francescana kitchen while her activist boss travels the world, giving speeches and cooking for his preferred cause of food waste and feeding the poor and disadvantaged (look for Bottura to be running soup kitchens in the favelas of Rio during the upcoming Olympics).

Sadly, the newest list did not offer much else for patriotic Canadians to celebrate. Last year Montreal’s Joe Beef (#4 on the 2016 Canada’s 100 Best list) became the fifth Canadian restaurant to crack the World’s 50 Best list, entering at #81 – but it did not repeat. And no other Canadian restaurant made the cut. Oh well. Better luck next year, when the newly itinerant annual release party moves to Melbourne, Australia. It is widely rumoured that it will do so without its long time namesake sponsor S. Pellegrino. The World’s 50 Best simply offends too many potential restaurant customers for Nestlé waters with its snubs and exclusions. Not merely in Canada – but in the hugely important market of France. On the other hand, Michelin doesn’t – and S. Pellegrino is expected to announce a new sponsorship with the original prestige restaurant guide any day now.