El Bulli and its creative chef, Ferran Adrià, from Rosas on the Costa Brava in Spain, stole the culinary crown from The Fat Duck and Heston Blumenthal, at Bray in Berkshire, who dropped to second place.

Perhaps it was the Spaniard’s foie gras with ice-cream rather than Mr Blumenthal’s smoked bacon and egg ice-cream that this year reversed the rankings of the establishments in the prestigious global award organised by Restaurant magazine.

Whatever the reason, the world of haute cuisine is now turned upside down, for 560 international judges — the most travelled gourmets, food critics and chefs — have given the biggest accolade to laboratory cooking favoured by Adrià and Blumenthal.

Their style of food is described as “molecular gastronomy” though both dislike the term. Instead they regard themselves as modern-day kitchen adventurers who use the latest technology to rev up their dishes rather than rely on the tried, the tested and the classic palate.

Mr Blumenthal said that he was “chuffed” to be named runner-up to such a world-class restaurant.

There was also cause for celebration at Le Gavroche, which has leapt up 20 places from 47th last year to 27th. Originally run by Albert Roux, his son Michel Roux junior has now been chef for 15 years. British entries in the Top 50 dropped from fourteen last year to six this year and other notable absentees from the list include Tom Aikens, Sketch (though it was named readers’ favourite), Angela Hartnett at the Connaught, the Wolseley and the Ivy.

Joe Warwick, editor of Restaurant, insisted last night that British chefs should still hold their heads up high.

“El Bulli just pipped The Fat Duck into the No 1 place.

“We had a different voting system this year. Only 30 judges out of 560 were from the UK.

“The result is we have a genuine international result. The judges are the most travelled and knew which restaurants were worthy.”

WORLD'S TOP 5

1 El Bulli, Spain
2 The Fat Duck, England
3 Pierre Gagnaire, France
4 French Laundry, USA
5 Tetsuya, Australia

Times Recommends

• Strange burns increase phosphorus concerns
• Smart meters call time on parking cheats
• Four-eyed fish uses mirrors to see in dark