From roast goat in Greece to rhubarb cake in Romania, we ask the experts where they’ll be going for their culinary fix this year
A few years ago, while visiting Devon in a wet and windy summer, chef Margie Nomura, host of the Desert Island Dishes podcast, stumbled upon the Beachhouse café while walking soaking wet with her dog at South Milton Sands.
“We were lucky enough to have a table and warm up with steaming bowls of the most delicious new mussels and shrimp,” he says. A testament to new ingredients and undeniable cuisine, it is “one of the memorable meals where, at De momento, everything is perfect. “
The same owners run a second café, Schoolhouse, on the Mothecombe coast. And at Easter, they’ll be opening rooms at their new gastropub, Harbour House, in Flushing, West Cornwall, so it’s also on their bucket list for this summer. Starting in February, Great British Menu chef Andrew Tuck comes to oversee menus at all three locations.
Bre Graham has been preparing for his return to Andros in the Cyclades since his first stop on the island five years ago. “It’s very beautiful and there’s an exciting food scene,” he says. I’m making plans to return this summer to the Tou Josef restaurant, to eat roast kid with vine shoots and lemon sauce, local goat cheese with very spiced loquat jam and yogurt with wild figs. “It’s on top of a hill, so you walk down winding streets to get there and you’ll be rewarded with amazing sunsets and the most delicious food,” he says.
Also on his bucket list for Andros is a gastronomic retreat hosted by Allegra Pomilio and Mimi Thorisson at Mèlisses, a luxury guesthouse overlooking the Aegean Sea: “The last time I was there, I stayed on a boat because I was sailing between the Cyclades; but I wouldn’t propose it if, like me, you don’t have legs for the sea. Instead, Graham dreams of settling into one of Melissa’s all-white rooms and exploring the island from there.
“A friend of mine, Anastasia Miari, wrote a cookbook called Yiayia, which is all about the regional cooking Greek grandmothers do. I would like to live inside the pages of that book. Starting on Andros.”
Visiting the misty hills, vineyards and villages of Piedmont during truffle season is a wonderful dining experience, according to Dan Keeling, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Noble Rot magazine and restaurants. “The ancient villages that give off the hills of Langhe have a different atmosphere from Game of Thrones,” he says. Keeling likes to stop by in November, once the season begins, to savor new wines from the winemakers he buys from.
First stop is always Il Centro in the village of Priocca, a family-run restaurant with stylish bedrooms. Keeling cites chef Elide Mollo’s “joyful renditions of local classics”, such as veal tartare, peppers stuffed with tuna, and tajarin (thin tagliatelle) with white truffle, as some of the best in the region. Meanwhile, her son Giampiero Cordello’s extensive collection of barolos and burgundies gives him cellar envy.
Half an hour away, at the “always excellent” Centro Storico wine bar in Serralunga d’Alba, Alessio Cighetti offers an “equally impressive” variety and some of the most productive charcuterie Keeling has ever eaten. “At least once in a lifetime, it’s worth being there to eat a plate of Cighetti’s hand-cut, melt-in-your-mouth Bettella hams,” he says.
The Costa de los Angeles Light is on the bucket list of the Ed Smith cookbook: “A two-week trip, with Cadiz at one end, Zahara de los Atunes at the other, and a beach in the middle, that’s my kind of vacation. it’s not an apparent gastronomic destination like, say, San Sebastian. This adds to the charm.
He suggests starting with Cadiz: “It has history, architecture, wonderful light and, if you’re independent, incredible access to new fish through the market. There’s also a chic place to eat high-end tapas called El Faro. He makes the most productive shrimp tortillas. “
Across the bay is El Puerto de Santa María, home to the Osborne sherry bodega, and more tapas places. Down the coast, Zahara de los Atunes is known for its tuna fishing and is also home to Iris, a boutique hotel run by London restaurant luminary José Pizarro which offers food experiences. Smith, who is co-author of Welcome to Our Table: A Celebration of What Children Eat Everywhere, says that one of the advantages of eating in local tapas places is that children are welcome: “It’s a good way for kids to try new things – if not the sea urchin, perhaps the tomatoes and bread.”
The San Benedetto market in Cagliari is “amazing,” says Letitia Clark, a Sardinia-based illustrator and cookbook writer. She visits and sees the local “candy” green pecorino and camone tomatoes, as well as the island’s famous bottarga (salted mullet roe). – “Delicious if you like fish things: it is somewhat salty and slightly sweet and acidic at the same time. “
She recommends staying an hour inland in a B
Sometimes there’s meat, infrequently not, but there’s a classic dolce: “think almonds and honey. “
It’s also worth staying at the neighboring Mario Cesare holiday home, run by Lais’s daughter Giulia, “just for breakfast,” says Clark, whose e-book Wild Figs and Fennel will be published in April. He adds: “Giulia chooses blackberries and prepares a tart or cake, which is served under a fig tree with homemade ricotta and family honey. »
There’s an explanation for why the Skåne region of southern Sweden is known as a foodie destination, says Simon Bajada, a Stockholm-based food writer and photographer. “It’s densely concentrated in fancy places to eat. “
Just outside Skivarp is Horte Brygga, a waterfront dining spot that’s inspired by its menu of “long lunches” at the surrounding farms. “In the summer, you can also enjoy a cushy ice cream at Bee Kind next door. “Bajada says.
Further east, along the coast, is Vyn, a new flagship farm from chef Daniel Berlin. “I’m hoping the main place to eat gets 3 Michelin stars,” says Bajada, “but also a more casual wine and dining bar where you can just pop in for a moment. “
The community’s bakeries are even more informal. “They’re especially smart in Skåne,” says Bajada, who recommends Ôrum 119 for “amazing” pizzas and breakfasts, and Gamla Bageriet for “beautiful Swedish rolls. “
In Ystad, a town familiar to lovers of the Wallander crime series, JH matbar is a community bistro opened a few years ago and serves “very elegant wines and very elegant food, in addition to their version of struva, the biscuits with the Scandinavian fried rosette”. Skåne also has some of Sweden’s beaches.
It’s been six years since natural wine expert Eoghan Neburagho moved to Manchester, at which point he saw the place grow to become one of the UK’s most attractive and engaging places to eat and drink.
“It’s a real culinary powerhouse,” says Neburagho. The people of Mancun seem particularly receptive to the new laid-back food and drink culture. It’s almost like a peak power over your shoulder, where you say, “yes, yes, London is great, but we can do just as well, if not better. “”For an Irishman, this resonates. I love it. “
Another hand, at Deansgate Mews, is a clever example, he says: “Head chef Julian Pizer made the decision to abandon the closure of large restaurants and set up a deli, which he called 3hands. He went back to basics: smart bread, the most productive local meats and cheeses, and a simple, fantastic meal.
The business has since morphed into a restaurant, Another Hand. What makes this especially exciting for Neburagho is that it works exclusively with natural wine: “I love this orange pétillant-naturel [naturally sparkling] wine that’s often on the wine list. It’s made by the Durrmanns family in Alsace, who call it Gaz de Schistes [which means shale gas]. It’s so energetic and effervescent. I’d drink it with almost anything on Julian’s menu.”
There has been a shift in food culture in Athens in recent years, according to David Josephs, CEO of Panzer’s Deli.
He recommends it at the Pharaoh, where herbal wines are paired with Cretan-inspired cuisine, or at the Akra wood-fired restaurant and bakery.
At The Foundry Hotel, Josephs likes to start the day with breakfast in the rooftop garden overlooking the Acropolis. The hotel “is a wonderful example of how the city’s old, overlooked buildings are redeveloped into something modern and hospitable without squandering their heritage. “
No vacation to the city is complete without a stopover in Mandrake, says Josephs: “If I take a ferry to one of the islands, I avoid this glorious grocery store in Piraeus. They make much of what they sell on-site and everything is exceptional, from olives to specialty hummus to capers. Horta [vegetables and feta] cake is to die for, as is Sifnos’ manouri cheese. Legumes are more specialized, but they’re worth a try.
Georgia is understandably popular with tourists looking to combine wine tasting with walking, but neighboring Armenia is also worth a visit, says Caroline Eden, a publisher and foodie whose latest book, Cold Kitchen, is due out in May. Music, museums, art and hiking are all on offer (follow a segment of the appropriate Transcaucasian Trail or find other routes through the HikeArmenia app), she says. The same goes for the amazing food and wine.
Topping Eden’s list of “really atmospheric places” is the small village of Tsaghkunk and the restaurant of the same name, which he dreams of returning to. “It’s not easy to say or easy to access, but if you’re interested in local flavors, it’s a must-see in Armenia. The chefs are creative, foraging for mushrooms and herbs in the surrounding hills, and there’s a classic bread space attached, with a clay tonir for making the Armenian lavash flatbread.
A stop there is a wonderful detour from Lake Sevan, or an hour’s drive from the capital, Yerevan. Wherever you go, be sure to order the tasty ponchik (similar to a doughnut). This is the specialty Eden has been dreaming of. from afar. ” Filled with mountain herbs and matzoon [yogurt], they’re crunchy on the outside, soft and deeply flavorful on the inside. “
Rumours that a sauna is being built next to their two huts and shepherds are making cook and food editor Tara Wigley even more determined to return this year to the Inver food stall on the shores of Loch Fyne. I know a position like this,” he says. It’s such an immortal position, unlike the old castle of Lachlan. With a cold water bath followed by a sauna, you would go up another size to what is already a very sensory experience. You feel so grounded through the food served there. .
“I don’t forget the huge prawns, cultured butter, a gorse-flavored panna cotta, and generally having that terroir feel that we associate with France. If you combined a bath with a sauna and then had a homemade gin and tonic, you’d almost feel like you’re stumbling.
He also feels “very detached from dirty laundry, kids and everyday life,” adds Wigley, of How to Butter Toast: Rhymes in a Book That Help You to Cook. During a picnic breakfast for two, “you can sit back and listen to vinyl records and pretend that’s what you do every Saturday morning: listen to jazz, drink coffee, and eat freshly baked pastries and canned crayfish. They know what they’re doing, that’s for sure.
Ljubljana is the place where recipe author and Fliss Freeborn would like to eat (still) this year. She describes the Slovenian capital as a combination of Stockholm, Berlin and Annecy, and recommends starting at the Central Market, with its “extensive stalls of fruits, vegetables, meats, jams, preserves, herbs and pumpkin seed oil: velvety, dark. “Green and great for wetting and watering. “
Other reasons to come with the city’s prestige as an International City of Vine and Wine: tastings in wine bars and department stores “cost a fraction of their French or Italian equivalents. “
Eating out on a budget is also easy. At Druga Violina, a classic Slovenian restaurant that employs other people with special needs, “fluffy potato dumplings, sausages and hot stews with creamy polenta cost around €8 depending on the dish. “
Another local staple is prekmurska gibanica, a layered cake made with poppy seeds, apples, raisins, walnuts, and cottage cheese (a type of soft cheese). “You’ll find it in many local bakeries, but for coffee and pastries with a view of the entire city, head to the café terrace in the most sensitive part of the Nebotičnik building,” says Freeborn.
Getting to the island of Elba can be a bit tricky (you have to get to Piombino from Pisa or Rome and then take a ferry), but it’s worth it, according to Sophie Allen, editor-in-chief of Quadrille, which publishes food and drinks. books. The scenery is magnificent and so is the gastronomy.
“We try to buy as local as possible, whether it’s from the roadside fruit stands or vegetables, honey and olive oil from the neighbor who has a garden,” Allen says. “Last year, we met up with Simone, who sells her local wines and vermouths in a small bar in her garden. This year, we ventured to a new beach, Barbarossa, and discovered the lively Osteria Moresca, where they serve the most productive new anchovies. , oodles of spaghetti vongole and local sparkling wine.
Other recommendations include beachside Emanuel Bar Enfola, “where you can eat exceptional pizzas beneath a huge fig tree”, and evening trips to Portoferraio for ice-cream at Gelateria Gran Guardia. “The ricotta and fig is my all-time favourite,” Allen says.
Since the closure of Bristol’s much-loved Bar Buvette in 2019, Kym Grimshaw has been dreaming of an Auberge de Chassignolles, the owners’ sister company in France. “I hope this year I get there after all,” Grimshaw says. , food and lifestyle photographer. “I really enjoyed Bar Buvette, but I comfort myself with the thought that the Auberge de Chassignolles will be even better. “
In a quiet village south of Clermont-Ferrand, this hotel-dining room serves a seasonal menu, with ingredients from nearby forests, fields and rivers, and vegetables from its garden. If Grimshaw had to describe his fantastic experience in France, it would be this: “an undeniable place to eat with tables spread out along the village square, a few small rooms upstairs, and motorbikes you can borrow to pedal to the market. “
He likes places that aren’t too luxurious but have something special about them: “You can’t identify what this magic is, but it’s hospitality that comes from the heart.
A good breakfast also helps, “with local cheeses, bread and sun-flavored cherries. “
If you haven’t explored Vienna’s food culture beyond the Wiener Schnitzel or the Sachertorte, you’re missing a trick, says Felitown Cloake, the Guardian’s food editor. Visit the city during the autumn harvest and see how the whole city goes crazy for wine, savor the Oktoberfest in Bavaria. ” Street carts sell Sturm, “an easy-to-drink fermented grape juice,” and Vienna is so small that you can take a bus to the vineyards of the surrounding villages.
“They have these taverns, called Heurigen, that serve special menus during the harvest,” Cloake says. “They hang greenery outside to represent that they have brought the wine of the new season. It’s all very medieval. Many wineries set up tables in the middle of the vineyards, where you can savor the new wines, with cheeses and bloodless cuts, while enjoying an incredible view of the city.
In one of the villages, Cobenzl, there’s a design-led cafe, Rondell, overlooking the vines that “has an all-Austrian wine list and a mid-century vibe. If you want something chic, you could go there, but just wandering around Cobenzl and seeing what’s on offer is great. I’d love to go back this year.”
“My religious home has been Italy, but since the pandemic I’ve been looking for inspiration closer to home,” says Aimee Collins, co-owner of the restaurants Five Little Pigs and The Bear of North Moreton, both in Oxfordshire. . . This year he would like to explore the Wild Atlantic Way in Ireland. ” A new position in Doolin called Homestead Cottage, in County Clare on the west coast, is precisely the kind of position I’m looking for right now. , whether it’s in terms of food and what I need from the time invested. “
What fascinates him is the proximity with which the restaurant works with farmers: “It turns out to be the simplest way to do things, but I know from experience that any restaurant that manages to make it the backbone of their business is special. »
The region is also making concerted efforts to revive local food traditions, Collins says. “It’s all exciting. “
It’s influenced by Max Jones of Up There The Last, a classic food preservation project, based in Cork. “I’d like to take one of your classes. He’s looking for food in the sea, which I love as an idea.
Her coastal road trip would finish with a stay at Native, also in west Cork, a soon-to-open cabin stay linked to a rewilding project. “If you have this farm-first approach to food, you want to stay somewhere with that same ethos,” she says.
Iain Ainsworth, founder of the online food and restaurant The Aficionados, has set his sights on Amsterdam, and specifically on the restaurant De Mark, in a new hotel in Durgerdam, on the east coast of the capital.
It may be only 20 minutes from central Amsterdam, but it’s a far cry from the taste of Michelin-starred cuisine that its creators, chefs Richard van Oostenbrugge and Thomas Groot, are best known for, says Ainsworth: “There’s nothing fancy here, just honesty. Dishes of the most delicious food.
Their protege Koen Marees is in charge of an open-fire grill, and he “could get you excited about a tomato. I had one dish called ‘a party of leeks’ and it was a plate of the most gorgeously, delicately charred leeks.”
It is, Ainsworth continues, the antidote to the kind of food where “by the time the waiter finishes explaining what’s on the plate, you get bored and the food has gone cold. There’s a bit of that Nordic influence: cooking on fire, preserving and pickling, but also the legacy of the spice trade. The Netherlands has never been a foodie destination, but that’s changing. Young chefs like Marées are breaking the mold.
The misty, escapist setting adds to the magic: “It’s in an old fishing village, close to the water, where the houses were traditionally painted foggy colours so that invaders couldn’t see them.”
“Visiting cheesemakers absorbs you in local culture,” says cheesemonger Andy Swinscoe, and L’Etivaz in the Swiss Alps is the perfect example: the whole village revolves around the co-operative production of L’Etivaz cheese, using milk from cows still grazed on high-mountain pastures in the summer, following the transhumance tradition. “It’s beautiful,” says Swinscoe, co-owner of The Courtyard Dairy in North Yorkshire. “You can take a scenic train there – the views through the Alps are just amazing – and there’s a little inn in the town, Hotel du Chamois, and you can go hiking, as well as visit La Maison de l’Etivaz to see cheese being made and matured.”
The inn also serves one hundred percent Etivaz fondue. After visiting a cheese factory, the last thing you crave for dinner is fondue. You’ve been eating cheese and talking about it all day – you don’t necessarily want a big plate of cheese for dinner. Swinscoe, however, makes an exception for Etivaz: “It’s such a special alpine cheese. “
Don’t pass up the chance to try the rösti while you’re there, he adds: “It’s a hard thing to beat.”
If other people are looking for new flavors this year, they deserve a vacation in the Romanian city of Brașov, says food editor Irina Georgescu, whose latest book, Tava, celebrates Romanian pastry and desserts. She particularly likes the Pilvax restaurant, which is run by a circle of Romanian-Hungarian relatives and combines all the culinary trends of Transylvania. They are working with a network of local artisan makers to reintroduce classic dishes and ingredients.
“The communist regime really impoverished Romanian cuisine,” Georgescu says. “We ended up eating just pork, polenta and rice. So when a restaurant like this champions these regional and historical recipes, in a modern way, it’s very exciting. Putting these dishes back on the menu starts a conversation about our past and generates a sense of pride that we really need in Romania, especially when it comes to food.”
She describes chef-owner Emese Gábor’s menu as “honest home cooking made at restaurant level” and recommends starting with one of the duck dishes: a duck leg with red cabbage cooked with sugar, vinegar and bay leaves, perhaps, or an “amazing” duck tarragon soup. “When you see tarragon, you know you’re in Transylvania,” he adds. “Drive south through the Carpathians and no one cooks with tarragon. “
Rhubarb is a very Transylvanian ingredient. In season, from late April to late June, Pilvax serves a rhubarb cake made with layers of sponge cake, rhubarb, and crispy meringue. “It’s very smooth and surely delicious. “
Puglia’s Masseria Moroseta, just off Ostuni, is among Xanthe Ross’ attractions this summer. The chef and food sustainability advocate heard by word of mouth about the six-room hotel surrounded by an organic olive grove.
“It’s called a restaurant, a kitchen, a laboratory and a garden. That piqued my interest,” Ross says. “The kitchen offers a set menu, what they have in the garden, what the chefs are experiencing, and what’s in the bakery. They are driven by ingredients and sustainability.
The friend who advised Ross told him to expect the unexpected. “Apparently, you don’t know what you’re going to eat until you sit down to eat, and the menu changes every day. I like the fact that it’s based on daily inspiration. Going to places like this renews you. It inspires you to be a little more artistic when shopping, dining, and cooking at home.
Simplicity also appeals: “It’s probably been cooked this way for generations, and it turns out that a delicious, fun and sustainable meal doesn’t have to be pretentious. “
It’s arguably more related to plant-based Caribbean cuisine, but Esme Carr has a growing fondness for Korean cuisine. “Over the past five years, I’ve learned how to cook it, so I dream of taking up a position that makes it authentic. ” However, it’s unlikely to make it to Seoul this year, given the demands of its busy Peckham restaurant, Deserted Cactus. Instead, their attractions are centered around Lewes. ” This year, it’s fast travel that allows me to reposition the landscape and, ideally, spice up Korean cuisine. The Café Vegu in Lewes is one of the most sensible on my bucket list.
Open for just over a year, the café and bakery are partly owned by Koreans. In addition to coffee (which they roast themselves) and Korean-inspired pastries, Vegu serves vegan versions of Korean dishes such as bibimbap, bokkeumbap, bulgogi deopbap, and manduguk. “They’ve also hosted pop-ups in the evenings, which makes it a little less difficult for us foreigners to visit,” Carr says.
Rhiannon Batten is co-author of Rustle Up: One-Paragraph Recipes for Flavour Without Fuss, available from the Guardian Bookshop for £14.95