NEW YORK, June 13 — The 2017 edition of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants Awards will be held in Melbourne, Australia.

The announcement dropped ahead of its 15th edition which will be held tonight in New York City — the first time the powerful restaurant ranking has been held outside London since being launched in 2002.

The move to Australia is part of the brand’s recently launched global tour, in which the event is to move from its home base in Europe to gastronomic capitals around the world.

The goal? To give The World’s 50 Best more cachet among international audiences.

The 16th edition will be hosted in partnership with Tourism Australia.

Organisers point out that Australia has demonstrated a strong showing on the ranking, with notable addresses like Attica, Quay, Sepia and Brae in 2015.

Other restaurants that landed a spot on the list include Rockpool, Tetsuya’s, Marque and Momofuku Seiobo.

It’s not the first time Tourism Australia has used gastronomy as a tourism strategy.

Last year, the organisation tapped Danish chef superstar René Redzepi of Noma — a World’s 50 Best Restaurants alumni who has nabbed the top spot four times — to bring his Nordic cuisine to Sydney in a pop-up that opened at a new waterfront space in Sydney.

“The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list provides an annual barometer to the greatest food, wine and restaurant experiences from all around the world,” said Tourism Australia Managing Director, John O’Sullivan in a statement.

“The awards align closely with Tourism Australia’s global campaign focus on food and wine and provide another compelling chapter in our ongoing Restaurant Australia story which we continue to share with the world.”

It’s precisely this kind of alignment, however, that has been criticized by some of the event’s most vocal opponents, notably a group of disgruntled French gastronomes who accused World’s 50 Best organizers of favouring chefs from countries with which they built commercial ties

Last year, the group released their own version of the ranking dubbed La Liste, which they claimed was based on a mathematical algorithm based on hundreds of guide books and online reviews.

The winners of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards will be announced out of New York tonight, starting at 8 pm EDT.

The event will be livestreamed at https://www.finedininglovers.com/tag/50-best-restaurants/. — AFP-Relaxnews