The Table

The World's 50 Best Restaurants published its 2026 extended list (Nos. 51-100) on October 21, ahead of the main ceremony in Lima, Peru, on November 4. The list spans six continents and 25 territories and is compiled from votes by more than 1,100 chefs, food writers and other experts, Restaurant Online reports.

The highest new entry is Ling Long in Shanghai at No. 53, followed by new entries including Nelita in São Paulo (54), Seroja in Singapore (64), Eatanic Garden in Seoul (72), Baan Tepa in Bangkok (90) and Lamdre in Beijing (92), per Cape Town Etc. London's The Ledbury, run by Brett Graham, re-enters at No. 83 for the first time since 2019; KOL fell from 49 to 70. Cape Town's Fyn (65) and Salsify at the Roundhouse (71) each rose 17 places, and Giza's Khufu's is at 97.

Days after Michelin's October 8 Texas update added five Dallas-area restaurants, D Magazine published an investigation (October 15) concluding that most or all of the new Dallas write-ups were produced with a large language model, the New York Post reports. A local chef had flagged an odd-sounding entry for Sushi Kozy to critic Brian Reinhart.

According to the Post, the AI detector Pangram rated the text "100%" AI, and Carnegie Mellon professors Alex Reinhart and David Brown pointed to GPT-4o as the likely source; Brown suggested an inspector may have fed notes to a chatbot and edited the output. The magazine said it found no sign of AI in Michelin's other city guides it compared.

Michelin denied it to D Magazine: "AI is not used in the writing of these reviews," saying inspector notes are written collaboratively from firsthand meals. Delish reports chef Tom Colicchio commented that "it's time to start ignoring this guide," while other readers argued AI detectors are unreliable.

London bakery Bread Ahead says its future at Borough Market is secure, a month after saying its lease would not be renewed because it had become "too successful" for the market, Restaurant Online reports. "In a nutshell, we won't be leaving anytime soon," the bakery said. Founder Matthew Jones opened the original bakery there in 2013; the brand now also operates in Dubai, Saudi Arabia, the US, the Philippines and Thailand.

The Borough Market Trust says its position never changed: chair Shane Holland said an extension to 2028 was first discussed in July and "remained on the table," and Bread Ahead has now accepted it.

University of Copenhagen food scientists fermented faba bean protein extracts with selected, well-known bacteria and tracked how the flavour compounds changed, Phys.org reports. Fermentation reduced the "beany" and "green" off-flavours and produced new nutty and umami-like notes; the team says it may also improve protein quality and extend shelf life, and that choosing different bacteria could tailor flavour.

"Consumers want food that resembles what they already know," said senior author Lene Jespersen, a professor in the Department of Food Science.

Just Eat has paused an AI tool that generated menu images for restaurants on its UK platform after it produced surreal results, Restaurant Online reports: fried eggs and sausages floating in cola for a "breakfast soda", a tiny burger inside a sauce pot, cheese-filled sushi and wine glasses holding watermelon. The tool was meant to help small independents add pictures without paying for photography. "We're sorry for any inaccurate images," a spokesperson said; affected images were removed.

In Chicago, the Tribune finds AI-generated food photos spreading across restaurant menu boards and signs, with burgers, burritos and shrimp that look plainly synthetic. Jay Goldberg of Chicago Culinary Kitchen in Palatine told the paper AI is fine for flyers, "but the second you're going to just bait and switch me with your food, I don't trust you as a business."

Michelin announced its 2027 Greece selection on October 20, expanding beyond Athens to Thessaloniki and Santorini for the first time. Greek City Times reports the guide now covers 62 restaurants across the three destinations, with seven new one-star restaurants (four in Athens, three in Santorini), seven Bib Gourmands and 21 newly recommended places.

Lycabettus at the Andronis Luxury Suites in Oia, led by Christos Karagiannis and Petros Brandenburg, debuted with two stars. Keep Talking Greece says it is now the country's only two-star restaurant after Athens' Delta, at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, was listed with one star this year. Special awards went to 29-year-old Theodoros Kaloidis of To Manitari in Thessaloniki (Young Chef), Christian Potelle of Spondi (Service), sommelier Despina Tokalakis of Aleria and Amphibian in Athens (Opening of the Year).

The Michelin Guide revealed its second American South selection on October 21 at The Pinnacle in Nashville, covering Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Atlanta. Only three restaurants in the seven-state region earned a new star: So. Fox in Atlanta's Virginia-Highland, Uberto at the Quercus property in Gay, Georgia, and Dakar NOLA in New Orleans, Atlanta Magazine reports.

The AJC notes Uberto's chef Ryan Smith had given up a star at Staplehouse when he moved his tasting menu south of Atlanta; he also received one of the night's two new Mindful Voices awards. Atlanta Magazine says Uberto sources more than 90 percent of its produce from an on-site regenerative, solar-powered farm.

All eight previously starred Georgia restaurants kept their stars, giving the state 10, per the AJC. Atlanta Magazine counts five Georgia restaurants that appear to have dropped out of the guide (one closed) and two moved from Bib Gourmand to Recommended.

Eater reports that "tavern-style" pizza, the thin, cracker-crisp pie cut into a grid of squares that is common across Chicago, Milwaukee, Minnesota and St. Louis, has spread coast to coast in recent years. Brittany and Brennan Grosvenor, Chicago-suburb natives who run Proof in Portland, Oregon, say tavern-style, not deep dish, is the pizza Chicagoans eat every week.

Bradley Shorten, behind Kim's Uncle Pizza in Westmont, Illinois, and the recently opened La Merna in Washington, D.C., tells Eater the grid cut yields more pieces, works as drinking food and puts toppings on every square, and that the small corner pieces are the ones "everybody goes for."

A balanced UK food basket saw prices rise 2.7% in 2025 versus 4.5% for the standard basket, about 40% less inflation, according to new analysis from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), a UK climate think tank. It estimates a household spending about £70 a week in 2021 would have saved around £520 cumulatively by August 2026.

Chocolate was the single largest contributor to the gap (32%), and meat a further 22%, with beef and lamb alone nearly 15%; both meats averaged around 10% annual inflation over two years. ECIU senior economist Chris Jaccarini links the sharpest rises to extreme weather, from cocoa farms in West Africa to British livestock, and says a balanced diet offers "some protection" but is "not a silver bullet."

Landry's, Tilman Fertitta's restaurant group, has made a $22 million bid for most of Fireman Hospitality Group's restaurants out of Chapter 11, Nation's Restaurant News reports. Fireman, parent of New York's Café Fiorello, Trattoria Dell'Arte and Bond 45, filed in August, about a year after founder Shelly Fireman died at 93.

Court documents show a Fertitta Entertainment affiliate was the stalking-horse bidder, and reports indicate Landry's mainly wanted the three flagships. Co-bidder Jeff Crivello's Ciao Hospitality is to take Paris Bar, the Le Jardin rooftop, Brooklyn Delicatessen and two Brooklyn Diners; he said there are no plans to convert them. Citing Eater, NRN says Café Fiorello in Washington closes after service on October 28, and Fiorella Italian Kitchen at National Harbor on October 29.