A handful of the world's newly crowned 50 best restaurants are in the U.S.

A prestigious panel of more than 1,000 culinary experts has released its annual list of the world's best restaurants, after a rigorous voting process that we can only hope involved a lot of taste-testing.

The World's 50 Best Restaurants 2021 awards were handed out Tuesday at a ceremony in Antwerp, Belgium, which organizers called a "key milestone in the ongoing revival of the restaurant sector" after last year's pandemic-related hiatus. (Separately, its recovery program has raised some $1.29 million for the restaurant industry since it launched last May.)

The organization calls the ranking "more than just a list," rather a "celebration of the universality of cuisines." Though we're also very interested in who made the roster, which you can find here.

Denmark dominated, with the top two spots going to Copenhagen restaurants Noma and Geranium. The other top 10 eateries — mostly boasting one-word names and bright, abstract-looking dishes — are located in Spain, Peru, Sweden, Singapore, Mexico and Hong Kong.

Six American restaurants made the list, representing the apparent best of New York and California. They're led by New York City's Mexican-inspired Cosme, which ranks 22nd. Here are the other U.S. names:

• Benu in San Francisco
• SingleThread in Healdsburg, Calif.
• Atomix in New York
• Le Bernardin in New York
• Atelier Crenn in San Francisco

The World's Best 50 Restaurants — despite its name — has also released a ranking of the next best 50 restaurants, bringing the total to 100. And it's bestowed a bunch of individual awards for specific chefs and establishments to watch.

Our dream post-pandemic bucket list just got a lot longer.

This story originally appeared in the Morning Edition live blog.

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