Eggplant caviar with raw spring vegetables at Joël Robuchon – Hôtel Metropole Monte-Carlo, in my opinion, the best Robuchon in Europe thanks to the executive chef Christophe Cussac. It’s amazing how much the quality of a restaurant will depend on an executive chef when Michelin starred “chains” like Robuchon or…

Out of all these most amazing steakhouses and teppanyaki restaurants in Tokyo, Dons de la Nature ( Kawai Building B1F, 1-7-6 Ginza, Chuo-ko, Tokyo; tel. 03- 3563-4129) is considered one of the best. Tokyo chef and book author Yukari Sakamoto went there recently and kindly allowed me to republish her…

When Hedone’s chef Mikael Jonsson decided to bake his own bread, he didn’t just improvise, instead, the ingredients quality-obsessed chef did his bread baking training at Alex Croquet boulangerie in Wattignies, France. Michelin has described Alex Croquet as a bread-making genius, whose approach to baking is almost scientific. (Read the full…

A new brilliant dish by Joël Robuchon Monaco executive chef Christophe Cuissac. Emmental zephyr (something between soufflé and cream, literally melting in your mouth!) is married with black truffles sauce and it’s shavings. I hope this culinary masterpiece will be “exported” to other Robuchon locations around the world. Joël Robuchon(2*):…

If you have ever passed by rue Saint-Anne in Paris, you must have certainly seen people queuing outside the Kunitoraya udon noodles shop. Since a while already, the queuing and waiting no matter the meteorological conditions, has moved to the neighbouring rue Villedo, where there are now two Kunitorayas, at…

When I first visited L’Astrance (4 Rue Beethoven, 75016 Paris; tel. +33 1 40 50 84 40), it had just received it’s first Michelin star and was one of the most exciting, up and coming restaurants in Paris. Ten years forward and numbers of restaurants opened around the world by Pascal…

If I had to name my “cantine”, only one restaurant, where I’ve been mostly in the recent years, it would be Takara (14 Rue Molière, 75001 Paris). It’s a traditional Japanese restaurant located in Paris “Little Japan” where you can have anything from sushi to shabu shabu or sukiyaki. I…

I first time heard of Le Calandre (Via Liguria, 1, 35030 Sarmeola di Rubano, Padova, Italy; tel. +39 049 633000) and it’s risotto from Andy Hayler’s FT.com interview, where he mentioned that there he had the best saffron risotto ever. If someone, who’s been to all the 3 Michelin around…

Croque-monsieur with ham from Desnoyer-Poujauran butcher, truffle salt and Comté cheese at Café Trama (83 Rue du Cherche-Midi, 75006 Paris;tel. +33 1 45 48 33 71) . Love it! (ask for extra crispy)

Cooking at the 2 Michelin starred French restaurant The Square ( 6-10 Bruton St, London W1J 6PU; tel. +44 20 7495 7100) is proper and solid, but I have a feeling, that if it were located in Paris, it would never get 2 Michelin stars. It seems that Michelin inspectors…