What restaurant has changed your life?

Food & Wine, a US-based internationally-respected authority on food and wine, has just published its first World’s Top 10 Life-Changing Restaurants list. The idea behind the ranking was perhaps prompted by Ferran Adrià’s announced sabbatical from the restaurant world as el Bulli holds first place on the list.

Food&Wine’s World’s Top 10 Life-Changing Restaurants (and their chefs)

1. elBulli, Roses, Spain; Ferran Adrià

2. The Fat Duck, Berkshire, UK; Heston Blumenthal

3. Le restaurant de Pierre Gagnaire, Paris, France; Pierre Gagnaire

4. The French Laundry, Napa Valley, USA; Thomas Keller

5. Nihonryori Ryugin, Tokyo, Japan; Seiji Yamamoto

6. Blue Hill, New York, USA; Dan Barber

7. Mugaritz, Basque region, Spain; Andoni Luis Aduriz

8. Noma, Copenhagen, Denmark; Rene Redzepi

9. Combal.Zero, Piedmont region, Italy; Davide Scabin

10. Aronia de Takazawa, Tokyo, Japan; Yoshiaki Takazawa

LAWeekly’s food blog points out the list boasts the usual suspects, and most people won’t have the opportunity to enjoy a life-changing meal at the restaurants on the list. So they offer up their top 10 in the Los Angeles area and ask readers to add to their restaurants to the list. Twitter is also lit up with those that missed Food&Wine’s list.

Determining what defines life-changing is undoubtedly individual and may well differ from Food & Wine's grand list. Some foodies were disappointed to see that Chef David Beran’s cuisine at Alinea in Chicago was not recognized while others just want their beloved chefs to be included: Joël Robuchon, Alain Ducasse, Charlie Trotter and Gordon Ramsay.

Food&Wine Slideshow

LAWeekly Blog

Tweets about the list