France and French gastronomy has fallen out of favour with the world’s ubiquitous food critics. Italy, Spain, Denmark… All have featured in the top spot of The World's 50 Best Restaurants in recent years, but France has barely been able to make the top five. It was the backlash against this ‘failure to adequately merit the work of French chefs’ that drove La Liste organisers and partners to begin a new global ranking using the specialist tools of an algorithm-based aggregator of food guides and reviews. According to the 2016 list of the world’s 1,000 finest restaurants, French talent still rules with Parisian restaurant Guy Savoy at Monnaie de Paris clinching the gold, but also countless other institutions in l’hexagone have performed well.

11 restaurants in the Alpes-Maritimes and two in the Var have earned themselves a place on the new list. Leading the pack is Louis XV by Alain Ducasse at the Hôtel de Paris in Monaco (30th with a score of 98.25) followed by La Vague d’Or in Saint Tropez (36th), La Palme d’Or in Cannes (247th), Christophe Bacquié in Le Castellet (296th), Hostellerie Jérôme in La Turbie (385th), Joël Robuchon in Monaco (394th), Mirazur in Menton (546th), L'Oasis in Mandelieu (609th), La Bastide Saint-Antoine in Grasse (622th), La Chèvre d'Or in Eze (635th), Villa Archange in Le Cannet (730th), La Paloma in Mougins (821th) and Le Chantecler in Nice (822th).

Similarly to the 2015 edition, France was the second best represented country with 113 restaurant on La Liste behind Japan (116).