This aerial view shows the park “El Faro” in Miraflores, Lima, on January 3, 2026.
Photo by Connie FRANCE / AFP via Getty Images
The Briefing
The 50 Best Restaurants 2026 ceremony takes place tonight, November 4, at the Teatro Municipal de Lima — the first-ever global edition staged in South America across the ranking’s 24-year history.Maido, Lima’s Nikkei restaurant and reigning world No. 1, will formally enter the Best of the Best hall of fame tonight, making it permanently ineligible for future competition.Peru has produced two of the last three world No. 1 restaurants — Central in 2023 and Maido in 2025 — a record no other country has matched across the same three-year window.A Week That Turned Lima Into the World’s Dining Room
For the first time in its 24-year history, The 50 Best Restaurants is crowning the world’s best restaurant in South America. Lima — the Peruvian capital that has quietly become one of the most consequential dining cities on earth — hosts the 2026 ceremony tonight at the Teatro Municipal de Lima, drawing chefs, food journalists, investors and culinary professionals from across the globe. PromPerú, Peru’s trade and tourism promotion agency, projects the event could channel close to US$2 million into Lima’s economy in the days surrounding the ceremony.
The buildup began November 2 with a welcome program that mobilized the city around a single purpose. On November 3, the 50 Best Talks brought together some of the most forward-thinking culinary voices in the world for a forum on sustainability, the shifting definition of fine dining and the global food conversation. Running in parallel, ticketed 50 Best Signature Sessions placed Lima’s own restaurants at the center of internationally attended collaborative dinners — a deliberate effort to put Peru’s dining scene, not just its trophy shelf, in front of a global audience.
Maido’s Farewell on Its Own Stage
The emotional centerpiece of tonight’s ceremony was written by Lima itself. Maido — helmed by chef Mitsuharu “Micha” Tsumura and celebrated for its Nikkei cuisine, the masterful fusion of Japanese technique and Peruvian biodiversity — was named The World’s Best Restaurant at the Turin ceremony in June 2025. Under the rules of The 50, that distinction carries an immediate consequence: induction into the Best of the Best group — an exclusive hall of former champions permanently removed from future competition.
That induction happens tonight, on home soil, before the city that built Maido. It is a farewell no script could have arranged more elegantly: the world’s best restaurant stepping aside on its own stage, clearing the floor for whoever claims the 2026 crown.
Peru’s Extraordinary Record in Global Rankings
The transition underlines a broader pattern. Central, the restaurant led by Virgilio Martínez and Pía León, claimed the No. 1 position in 2023 and is already part of the Best of the Best group. Then in 2025, Maido repeated the achievement. Between those two Peruvian victories, Spain’s Disfrutar held the top spot in 2024 — meaning Peru has produced two of the last three world No. 1 restaurants, a feat no other country has accomplished across the same three-year span. Four Lima establishments appeared in the 2025 top-50 list: Maido, Kjolle, Mérito and Mayta.
The Economic Argument Behind the Historic Hosting Decision
The choice of Lima as host is as much a strategic investment as a cultural statement. Comparable events have demonstrated the financial upside: at North America’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025 in Las Vegas, 92% of guests stayed in hotels or serviced apartments, generating more than US$750,000 for the city. The Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025 ceremony in Rio de Janeiro produced an advertising value equivalent of US$40.8 million. Peru is betting that Lima’s turn on the global stage delivers returns of comparable — and potentially greater — scale across hotels, restaurants, transport and local suppliers.
Peruvian Minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism Berthin Gómez Vela placed the stakes in plain terms, calling the selection of Lima “a historic milestone for Peru,” and framing it as the result of sustained government and PromPerú efforts to cement the country’s identity as a global gastronomic power capable of driving high-value tourism.
It is also worth noting that Lima was not the original venue. The 2026 ceremony had been announced for Abu Dhabi before the organization reversed course and redirected the event to Peru — a change that ultimately delivered the ceremony to the country with perhaps the strongest claim to host it.
A Landmark Night Under a New Name
Tonight’s ceremony carries one additional distinction: it is the first edition formally staged under the rebranded identity The 50 Best Restaurants, operating under the wider umbrella brand The 50, adopted in September 2026. The name change is cosmetic; the stakes are not. The 2026 ranking and the identity of the new world No. 1 will be revealed live tonight at the Teatro Municipal de Lima, with the ceremony streamed on the organization’s YouTube channel for viewers worldwide. Whoever takes the top spot does so in the city that has already redefined what it means to hold it.
© {{Year}} Latin Times. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Dining and Cooking