Snail porridge may help win award

The Fat Duck was voted the second best in the world in 2004

A restaurant serving quail jelly and snail porridge has been included in a shortlist of the world's 50 best.

The Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire - last year's runner-up - is one of 14 UK eateries competing for Restaurant Magazine's title.

In the running is also the Waterside Inn, only a stone's throw away in the same village, and Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons in Great Milton, Oxfordshire.

The winner will be announced at The Royal Exchange on Monday.

Speculation

The result will be decided by a panel of 500 international chefs, food critics and restaurateurs.

Speculation is rife that this year, the two times winner Thomas Keller of the French Laundry, in California, US, will have to cede defeat to a British restaurant.

The UK has the largest number of restaurants in the shortlist, outstripping both France and the US, who each have 10 restaurants included on it.

Ella Johnston, editor of the British-based Restaurant Magazine, which created the awards three years ago, said the aim was to provide a definitive guide to the best places to eat around the world.

She said: "Nobody had done it before. Sure we had national and city guides but as a global communication and commerce becomes part and parcel of our everyday lives, and international travel is so readily available, it was odd that there was no definitive list of the best places to eat around the globe."

The 14 British restaurants in the top 50 are: Angela Hartnett at The Connaught, London; The Fat Duck, High Street, Bray, Berkshire; The Gallery at Sketch, London; Le Gavroche, London; Gordon Ramsay, London; Hakkasan, London; The Ivy, London; St John, London; Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons, Great Milton, Oxfordshire; Nobu, Metropolitan Hotel, London; Tom Aikens, London; The Waterside Inn, Bray, Berkshire; The Wolseley, London and Yauatcha, London.