Los Gatos' Manresa Declared World's Top Restaurant

The food isn't good at Manresa in Los Gatos. It's world-class good -- the 48th-best restaurant on the globe, as a matter of fact.

Chef David Kinch's spin on local California cuisine -- where ingredients come from a Santa Cruz farm that grows vegetables exclusively for the roasted stone fruit or the slow-roasted duck in a hay-and-salt crust -- last made the list in 2006, and is one of only two California eateries to make the exclusive list, compiled by sparkly-water purveyors San Pellegrino, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

The French Laundry clocked in at 43, though chef Thomas Keller's New York effort, Per Se, was deemed sixth-best restaurant, according to reports.

Keeping its strangehold on the top spot at www.theworlds50best.com is Noma, a Copenhagen, Denmark-based eatery where the ingredients are all classic Nordic products, like moss. Really.

Kinch's status as a premier purveyor of food products is merely due to the hard work of his staff, he said in an e-mail.