Valencia Hosts The World’s 50 Best Restaurants Gala

Valencia played host to The World’s 50 Best Restaurants gala last week. It could not have been a more fitting location for the event to take place as gastronomy thrives in Valencia where the cuisine holds its own identity and there is an exceptional quality of local produce, as well as amazing technique and creativity.

Impressive successes include Quique Dacosta’s rise to 20th position and Valencia’s own Ricard Camarena’s entry in the list from 51 to 100. Across the entire world only 53 cities have a restaurant on this prestigious list, read on to discover more about this incredible event and the full list of restaurants who made it onto the list.

Gastronomy of Valencia

The event made headlines in Forbes magazine, which described Valencia as a “culinary star in its own right”, and Fortune, which highlights the evolution of the city as a “gastronomic paradise“.

Over the last few days, Valencia has been cooking at the highest level. Prestigious chefs, critics, the media and professionals from the sector have recognised the qualitative leap that Valencian gastronomy has undergone in recent years: cuisine with its own identity, exceptional quality of local produce, as well as technique and creativity with its own name. The main protagonists have undoubtedly been chefs such as Luis Valls, Begoña Rodrigo, Vicky Sevilla, Bernd Knoller, María José Martínez, Carito Lourenço, Germán Carrizo, Vicky Sevilla, Kiko Moya, Alberto Ferruz, who, together with Quique Dacosta and Ricard Camarena, have made their restaurants shine during these days, exciting and surprising the world’s gastronomic elite.

Moreover, by hosting The World’s 50 Best Restaurants gala, Valencia has once again demonstrated its extraordinary capacity to host and organise major events, and to turn national and international events into memorable events. In fact, in recent years, the city has been the setting for events as important as the 36th edition of the Goya Awards or the gala of the Michelin Guide Spain & Portugal 2022, where 3 new stars were awarded to the city. It has also been recognised as World Design Capital and European Capital of Smart Tourism in 2022, and recently as European Green Capital 2024. Important milestones that project València as a smart, sustainable and cutting-edge city.

Quique Dacosta & Ricard Camarena crowned among the best in the world

The Valencian gastronomic universe was also in luck this year, the incredible creativity and elegance of Quique Dacosta’s proposals in his restaurant Dénia (Alicante) now holds the 20th position, rising twenty-two positions compared to the list in 2022. This year has also seen Valencia’s own Ricard Camarena break into the list of the 100 best restaurants in the world in 96th place. It is worth noting that only 53 cities in the world have a restaurant on this prestigious list. Central in Lima, led by chefs Virgilio Martínez and Pía León, was crowned in first position, succeeding the 2022 winner, Geranium, in Copenhagen. See the list below to find out more about which restaurants made it into The World’s 50 Best Restaurants:

1 to 12 Best Restaurants

21- 41 Best Restaurants

42 – 50 Best Restaurants

For More on Valencia

For more on why visit Valencia, check out ITTN’s Coffee Break interview with Eva Fernández from Visit Valencia:

Alternatively, read about Carrie Day’s adventure in this stunning Spanish city: