France's Chefs Ride High In OAD Top 100 Heritage Restaurants

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The OAD guide is based on the opinions of an international community of critics, dining at large in all corners of the world.

French chef Michel Bras' Japan-based Toya restaurant has tantalized the taste buds of critics at Opinionated About Dining (OAD), topping its freshly published list of top "classical and heritage" restaurants worldwide.

The OAD guide is based on the opinions of an international community of critics, dining at large in all corners of the world. These culinary experts provide scores and comments on restaurants, which are then compiled by an algorithm. OAD publishes various restaurant rankings throughout the year, such as the world's best Japanese restaurants.

French chefs carry culinary tradition

For this particular list, OAD has focused on chefs who master traditional cuisine to perfection, maintaining culinary heritage and taking it forward. Essentially, the list rounds up the best restaurants in the world. And, as is often the case, it is France's chefs -- working at home or further afield -- who dominate the top positions. Michel Bras, voted the world's most influential chef by his counterparts back in January, takes first place with his Toya restaurant at the Windsor Hotel on the island of Hokkaido, Japan.

A French restaurant takes second place, with Michel Troisgros' establishment in Roanne, France. Representing the third generation of the Troisgros family, this chef has already won over international critics, taking eighth place in the 2015 "La Liste" ranking of top 1,000 restaurants worldwide. Alain Ducasse comes in third place with his Louis XV restaurant in Monaco.

This latest OAD ranking seems to reaffirm the pride of place that French cuisine holds as the cornerstone of modern gastronomy. As well as taking the top three slots, around 15 French chefs fly the flag for the country's cuisine in the top 50, with appearances from the likes of Pierre Gagnaire, Marc Haeberlin, Joël Robuchon and Bernard Pacaud. After Régis and Jacques Marcon in fourth place, and Michel Guérard in fifth, Nadia Santini is the first chef of a different nationality to land in the list, in sixth place. Considered one of the best female chefs in the world, she's currently cooking up a storm at Dal Pescatore in northern Italy.

Other heavyweights from the French food scene to make OAD's ranking include Thomas Keller, who gets two listings, with Per Se in New York, USA, in eighth place and The French Laundry in Yountville, USA, in 11th.

OAD's top 20 classical and heritage restaurants, 2016:

1. Michel Bras Toya, Toya (Japan)

2. Troisgros, Roanne (France)

3. Alain Ducasse - Louis XV, Monte-Carlo (Monaco)

4. Régis and Jacques Marcon, Saint-Bonnet-le-Froid (France)

5. Michel Guérard, Eugénie-les-Bains (France)

6. Dal Pescatore, Canneto Sull'Oglio (Italy)

7. Schwarzwaldstube, Baiersbronn-Tonbach (Germany)

8. Per Se, New York (USA)

9. L'Ambroisie, Paris (France)

10. Robuchon Au Dôme, Macao (China)

11. The French Laundry, Yountville (USA)