Mirazur, Mauro Colagreco’s three Michelin-starred restaurant in the town of Menton on the French Riviera, has been named the world’s best restaurant.
The restaurant, overlooking the glittering blue Med, scooped the top spot at the World’s 50 Best Restaurants Awards 2019 in Singapore last night. While France is known as the cradle of fine dining, this is the first time that a French restaurant has taken the number one spot on the coveted list since it began in 2002.
“This recognition from my esteemed colleagues and peers is a great honour. It recognises the trajectory of my life from Argentina to the Riviera that welcomed me so warmly 19 years ago. I am overjoyed to bring this award back to France”, said Colagreco.
“I am from so many influences but above everything, I am a cook and I love to cook. My food is from my heart and I love to share it with my guests. From all of us at Mirazur, thank you – we are all celebrating tonight,” he added.
The votes were submitted by over 1,000 food writers, critics, chefs, restaurateurs and industry experts from 26 regions from around the world.
At Mirazur on the French-Italian border, Colagreco creates modern, delicately flavoured dishes made with local seasonal ingredients.
He grows much of Mirazur’s produce on his own farm and sources a lot of his ingredients from the nearby Ventimiglia market, making a hero of both seafood and vegetables. One of his signature dishes is oyster with tapioca, shallot cream and pear.
“I am proud to be one of the representatives of a new French kitchen that lives to the rhythm of all the influences of the world. I am not French, but I have made French cuisine my passion; it is so beautiful and so refined.
“I believe in mixing, combining and celebrating all influences. I am pleased to be able to open my kitchen to different inspirations,” he said.
Colagreco cut his culinary teeth in Buenos Aires, moving to France in 2000 to work at the Lycée Hôtelier de La Rochelle. A year later his big break arrived, when he worked as an apprentice under Bernard Loiseau at Cote d’Or.
He then went on to work with some of the biggest names in French cooking, including Guy Martin, Alain Passard and Alain Ducasse.
Branching out in 2006, he opened Mirazur in the grounds of a 1930s villa surrounded by orchards and gardens close to the French-Italian border. The restaurant received its first Michelin star less than a year after opening and now boasts the top accolade of three stars.
