Like with most things in the world, the men – to be specific, European men – are being celebrated again. The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list was announced in northern Spain, last evening, and like almost every other year, it catalogued male-dominant restaurants with expensive menu selections and focused heavily on Europe. While last year’s list featured New York-based Eleven Madison Park on the top spot followed by three Spanish restaurants and one each from Austria, France and Italy, the 2018 list has three Spanish, two French, one Italian and one New York-based restaurant bagging top spots.

Chef Gaggan Anand’s Bangkok based boundary-pushing restaurant rose two places and sits at number 5 this year but yet again, an Indian restaurant fails to make the top 50. Delhi’s Indian Accent had bagged the No 78 spot in 2017 after having dropped to No 87 in the 2016 list. The people behind the exclusive listicle of best food spots had even come up with a trophy for the Best Female Chef which is downright insulting and another example of random tokenism. There is no Best Male Chef award which is handed out but only the Best Chef award which appears to be exclusively reserved for those born with a male sex organ.

The 2018 Best Restaurant’s Award is the first one to appear after the #MeToo movement which threw up issues of sexual harassment, sex bias and racial profiling and has been a huge wake-up call for the global community. It remains to be seen whether the authorities behind the list will address the elephant in the room or – like in most instances – brush it under the carpet.