You may remember that earlier this year the World’s Best Restaurant for 2015 was announced and that the famed Spanish eatery El Celler de Can Roca walked away with the coveted prize.

Other noteworthy talking points from the list included perennial winner Noma dropped down to third; the charming Osteria Francescana Modena claimed a deserved second place; Lima, the Peruvian capital, is something of a culinary hotspot these days; and that the French were unhappy with the omission of a Gallic restaurant in the top ten.

The last point isn’t that surprising….

Following up from this perceived slight a group of illustrious French chefs launched a scathing criticism of the prize’s voting procedure, calling it at best “opaque”.

The group of culinary masters that fronted the assault have christened themselves Occupy50best and have called upon sponsors to boycott the entire event, which has been running since 2002.

“The jury members, appointed by backroom politics, vote anonymously, without ever having to justify their choice of restaurant or even to prove that they actually ate there!,” their petition cries.

Further claims were made, including that the final results is a hodgepodge of “partiality, self-promotion, and male chauvinism.”

This is just part of a wider movement. Last year, super chefs Alain Ducasse and Guy Savoy called upon the French government to create a Good France day in order to promote Gallic cuisine and publically stated that France was losing a PR food war.

In an effort to counter this offensive, a team from 50 Best made an attempt to smooth relations ahead of the award ceremonies and made a special trip to Paris.

At the time, William Drew, the editor in chief of World’s 50 Best Restaurants, said: “We are sometimes portrayed as anti-French…We want to show that’s very far from the truth.

“We take our responsibility very seriously and strive to make the voting system as robust as possible.

“The list is created from the votes of almost 1,000 independent experts from across the world. Neither the organisers, nor any of the sponsors, can vote or influence the voting or the results.”

No French restaurant has won the award, which in its short-lived history has been dominated by the El Buli (Girona, Spain) and Noma (Copenhagen, Denmark). Other winners include Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck and The French Laundry, a Gallic inspired eatery in Yountville, California.