Paris (AFP)

The non-star Japanese restaurant Sugalabo climbed to the top of the French list La Liste, which lists 1,000 exceptional restaurants worldwide, tied with Guy Savoy in Paris, Le Bernardin in New York and Ryugin in Tokyo, all three. three stars.

Rare enough for someone who reaches the top, Yosuke Suga, chef of Sugalabo in Tokyo, is not listed in the Michelin Guide, unlike the three other chefs: Seiji Yamamoto of Ryugin, Eric Ripert of Bernardin and Guy Savoy, restaurant eponymous at the Paris Mint.

"I was 33 years old when I opened my own restaurant, told AFP Yosuke Suga, visibly moved, I was told that I was young and not mature enough." "It was 16 years ago and today I feel the responsibility of a chef who has to carry Japanese cuisine further," says the so-called "king of kaiseki", named after the traditional meal several small dishes served together.

Yosuke Suga, who has spent 17 years alongside Frenchman Joel Robuchon, the most starred chef in the world, offers himself "a meteoric rise", exclaims Joerg Zipprick, co-founder of La Liste, an aggregator based in France conceived from a compilation of guides and gastronomic critics.

The 2020 ranking awards a score of 99.5 out of 100 to its restaurant, rewarding a cuisine that knows how to question. The chef and his team explore "once a month the country" to find the ingredients to "surprise" their customers.

Despite his French gastronomic training, the chef strives to make maximum use of Japanese products with a few touches of caviar, truffle or foie gras.

- Ascent of Asia -

Ryugin chef Seiji Yamamoto also defends local produce and seasons.

Their success is "the sign of the rise of Asia that we have been seeing for some time now, Japan in the lead, but also China, Korea, Thailand," says Joerg Zipprick.

In the top 1,000 restaurants, 130 are located in Japan, 126 in China (including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan), ahead of France with 116 establishments and the United States with 113.

Guy Savoy's restaurant at the Monnaie de Paris, where you can eat his artichoke signature soup with black truffle and mushroom puff pastry, and Eric Ripert's Bernardin in New York, which combines tuna and foie gras in a carpaccio, also remain at the top, as last year, in this ranking supported by the Quai d'Orsay.

This ranking is an answer to the 50 Best sometimes called "anti-French".

The list of winners in 2020 multiplies ex aquo: five restaurants share the second place with the note 99 and eight the third (98.5). The multi-star French chef Alain Ducasse is there with Louis XV-Alain Ducasse (2nd) in Monaco and Plaza Athénée in Paris (3rd).

- "Authentic" Italians -

New in the 2020 ranking: the bonuses "authenticity" and "local / traceability" to oppose a "certain creative cuisine and + instagrammable + that copies at the speed of light," says the co-founder of The List.

A survey conducted this year by La Liste with 20,000 restaurant owners in 195 countries "points to the increasing weight of green: search for local producers, sustainable fisheries, organic (...) .We have taken into account these trends", fact argue Philippe Faure, president of the ranking.

"We eat the same thing in certain ranges of restaurants in Tokyo, Moscow, Paris, London, New York, even in South Africa (...) This bonus is to highlight the authentic addresses", Joerg Zipprick continues.

With the Italians in the lead, who "can serve pasta in very large restaurants", take advantage of the countries that have not broken the links between haute cuisine and their basic cuisine.

Russia also continues its rise thanks to the embargo on western food products in place for five years, "almost self-sufficient with many more fish, vegetables and + dinners of tsars + with caviar and sturgeon grilled", says Joerg Zipprick.

The "megatrend" is "casual dining", the stuffy service and salty bills are less and less seen and not only for young people.

Another is "the imposed menu" around the world, denounced as "dictator" by Joerg Zipprick: "The taverns with the dish of the day and the unique menu have always existed, but the restaurant was invented here in Paris to give the choice to the customer ".

© 2019 AFP