Four years ago, when life threw us a curve ball or two, The Hungry One and I embarked on a quest for the best.

We agreed that life can be too short to wish you’d gone and done something.

So we set ourselves a challenge. Before we had kids, we would go and and visit as many of the top restaurants in the world as we could.

Using the San Pellegrino Top 50 list as a guide, we started trying to get reservations and saving up. The tricksy thing is that every year the list changes.

If we make the top 10, we think we think we’ll be set.

We’re nearly there.

Here’s our dossier of a life well lived.

San Pellegrino 2012 list

1. Noma, Denmark (part 1 and part 2).

2. El Cellar de Can Roca, Spain(here)

3. Mugaritz, Spain (here)

4. D.O. M, Brazil (here)

5. Osteria Francescana, Italy (here)

6. Per Se, USA (here)

7. Alinea, USA (here)

8.  Arzak, Spain (here)

9. Dinner by Heston, UK (here)

10. Eleven Madison Park, USA (here)

Further down….

13 )Fat Duck, UK (part 1, part 2)

14) The Ledbury, UK (here)

15) Le Chateaubriand, France (here)

17) Pierre Gagnaire, France (here)

24) Mirazur, France (here)

25) Daniel, USA (here)

31) Asador Etxebarri, Spain (here)

34) Faviken, Sweden (here)

37) Momofuku Ssam, USA (here)

43) The French Laundry, USA (here)

47) Bras, France (here)

79) Momofuku ko, USA (here)

80) Viajante, UK (here)

94) Hibiscus, UK (here)

98) Chez Panisse, USA (here)

 Special mention….

El Bulli (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4)