As many of the week’s speakers made clear, the North American story is very often a story of immigrants—a story of leaving, and a story of coming home. “The food industry doesn’t exist without immigrants. In the back of every Michelin star restaurant is a bunch of people from the Caribbean, people from Mexico, people from all over the world,” Christopher Binns, a farmer and co-owner of Stush in the Bush, a “garden to table dining experience” in St. Ann, Jamaica, (number 49) said in a video presentation during a 50 Best Talks event on Wednesday. “It’s the backbone of American food, of the American dream.” And for Binns and his wife, chef Lisa Binns, being the children of immigrants is “always going to be a point of pride.”

“Stush in the Bush is our home. It’s a place where love grows and reaches deep into your soul. It is an experience rooted in local, inspired by seasonality, and cemented in creating conscious connection,” Lisa said. “While we can be inspired by and informed by external [and foreign practices], the memory of Caribbean foodways, intentionality of expression, flavor, heritage, and authenticity are the keys.”

50 Best recipient Gregory Gourdet, James Beard Award winner and chef-owner of Kann in Portland, Oregon (No. 27; and a Bon Appétit Best New Restaurant of 2023), echoed Binns’s sentiments in his own talk. After years of honing French technique at Jean-Georges in New York City, then cooking pan-Asian cuisine in Portland, Gourdet realized: “I had been immersing myself in everyone else’s traditions, but not my own. I was learning everyone else’s story, but not mine,” he said.

At Kann, Gourdet serves diners Haitian flavors and dishes created with local, seasonal ingredients from the Pacific Northwest. His menu invites you to look with him back at his origins and ancestral tradition while celebrating the gifts of his current home. “The American dream is a bridge between where you come from and where you’re going,” Gourdet said.

Where are we going? Chefs and restaurateurs present at the event are optimistic that this personal approach to cooking will only grow. “I’m excited to see chefs telling their own story,” said Afua “Effie” Richardson, managing director and co-owner of Dakar NOLA (number 6). “Instead of just cooking someone else’s food and doing it well, how can they create something on their own?” Such was the case for Dakar NOLA’s chef Serigne Mbaye, who spent nearly a decade cooking French food—in culinary school and French restaurants, including Atelier Crenn (number 46)—before embracing his roots. “To see that I’m being recognized for cooking food that my mom used to cook when I was younger, that itself is a blessing,” he says.

“We’ve learned from other restaurants and chefs that if they push forward what they want to do, they can make change with their food,” said Ellia Park following the awards ceremony. “And [by representing Korean food], we feel like we’re giving more hope to chefs in our country that they can do more in the world.”

North America’s 50 Best Restaurants

Below, find the entire list. If you’re keeping count: Two Caribbean restaurants made the list, Buzo Osteria Italiana in Barbados (No. 41) and Stush in the Bush in Jamaica (No. 49); Canada received 10 nods; the US had the most representation, with 38 restaurants. Of those, New York (13) and San Francisco (7) dominated.