• by Melynda Fuller , August 22, 2019

Meredith titles Food & Wine and Travel + Leisure have collaborated on the inaugural publication of World’s Best Restaurants list.

Capital One sponsored the list.

The new platform covers 30 restaurants from around the world, culled from the global journey of anonymous critic Besha Rodell, a James Beard Award-winning writer. Rodell is a critic for The New York Times’ Australia bureau and also served as critic for L.A. Weekly for five years.

The list is the result of a four-month journey, during which Rodell visited 81 restaurants in 24 countries. The journey took Rodell across six continents for a total of 100,000 miles of travel.

To begin, Rodell took recommendations from a global panel of hospitality and restaurant experts from the two Meredith titles and culinary personalities, including Ruth Reichl, Enrique Olvera, Gail Simmons, Alex Atala, Anne-Sophie Pic, Nina Compton and Marcus Samuelsson.

The restaurants are not ranked and steeped in the culture of their home locations, which include South Africa, Italy, Lebanon, Japan, India, Brazil, California, South Korea and Morocco, among others.

“If someone were to plan an around-the-world trip based on these recommendations, we'd want them to feel as though they'd truly experienced the breadth of the world, not just found themselves in very nice dining rooms eating very nice meals in various locations," stated Travel + Leisure Editor-in-Chief Jacqueline Gifford. "We searched for balance, excellence and mix."

The list will appear in the September issues of Food & Wine and Travel + Leisure.