To me, there is nothing better than a perfectly prepared plate of food. It’s what makes me want to travel the world in search of the best restaurants, the most creative and ambitious chefs, and the highest-quality produce.
What I crave is simple. No matter how long and impressive the list of ingredients might be, how many techniques are used, the show a restaurant might put on tableside, or the thoughtful story a chef might tell about how a dish came to life – in the end, only one thing truly matters to me: taste.
Some dishes taste great. And then there are those that taste so unbelievably good they make you stop in your tracks, sharpen all your senses, hold your breath for a moment, and simply appreciate the sensual experience you’re allowed to be part of.
These are the dishes that create memories that last forever. Time passes, but when I think about them, I can taste them as if I were back at the very table where I first ate them. Over the course of my gourmet journey, I’ve collected 100 of those unforgettable bites. In this post, I’m counting down from 100 to 91.
100 – A Bite of Norwegian Summer
🍽️ Lompe | Langoustine Claw | Summer Rose
📍 Maaemo, Oslo (NO)
🌐 Website | Instagram
🧑🏼🍳 Esben Holmboe Bang
🗓️ 2022
A small snack that captures the essence of Esben Holmboe Bang’s vision at his 3-star restaurant Maaemo in Oslo: deeply rooted in Norwegian heritage, elevated by the finest local produce, and brought to life through unexpected flavor pairings.
Here, a delicate langoustine claw rests on a traditional lompe (Norwegian potato flatbread), topped with rose petals and a splash of rose water adding fresh, surprising floral aromas. A truly unique bite!
99 – Hipster Tartlet
🍽️ Fresh Peas Tartlet | Dill | Caviar
📍 HaCo, Hamburg (DE)
🧑🏼🍳 Björn Juhnke
🗓️ 2020
It’s frequently the small one-bite treats at the beginning or end of a menu that stay with me, as often they are intense flavour bombs that fill your mouth with tantalising sensations. This small tartlet combines sweet fresh peas (one of my absolute favourite ingredients) with the salty seafood flavours of the caviar and some subtle smoky notes, as was usual in the open-fire kitchen of Restaurant HaCo. This intimate restaurant perfectly blended the casual hipster vibes of Hamburg’s St. Pauli quarter with high-end cuisine, focusing on local produce and woodfire cooking. Sadly, it closed recently, but St. Pauli as a whole continues to thrive gastronomically.
98 – An Unconventional Classic
🍽️ Filet de Rouget de roche croustillant à l‘herbe royale | Réduction vigoureuse au pesto légèrement tomaté
📍 Restaurant de l‘Hôtel de Ville, Crissier (CH)
🌐 Website | Instagram
🧑🏼🍳 Franck Giovannini
🗓️ 2019
At Restaurant de l´Hôtel de Ville, each plate is a piece of art! For years, while constantly changing all dishes seasonally, this temple of French Haute Cuisine has kept the highest possible level of cooking, as shown e.g. by repeatedly being listed among the 10 best restaurants in the world by La Liste.
This perfectly cooked Red Mullet filet was served with bold aromas of Italian herbs, tomatoes, and courgettes. A sensational and memorable combination, completed by the exciting textures of the tender fish, the crispy crust and the creamy sauce.
97 – Bold Combinations
🍽️ Saibling mit Raps und Kamille
📍 The Restaurant at the Dolder Grand, Zürich (CH)
🌐 Website
🧑🏼🍳 Heiko Nieder
🗓️ 2020
In Zurich‘s most prestigeous hotel, chef Heiko Nieder has also created the city‘s culinary pinnacle, with The Restaurant that has held 2 Michelin Stars for more than a decade.
Nieder‘s cooking, while following French tradition, often features unexpected flavour combinations, fusing seafood or meat with fruits, herbs, or flowers not often found in haute cuisine. Sometimes this leads to true masterpieces like this dish where a tender chard (Saibling) filet, which was slowly cooked at 65° in the oven, is combined with a sauce made of rapeseed oil, camomile, and lime to create a unique, rich, and delicate sensation.
96 – A Japanese Ode
🍽️ „Rich Harvest“ | Longtooth Grouper
📍 Narisawa, Tokyo (JP)
🌐 Website | Instagram
🧑🏼🍳 Yoshihiro Narisawa
🗓️ 2024
A culinary legend in Japan, Yoshihiro Narisawa‘s innovative „Satoyama“ cuisine is an ode to Japanese nature and agriculture.
The standout dish of my meal at Narisawa is called „Rich Harvest“ and celebrates rice in all its forms: pink and green swirls of fermented rice koji and puffed rice kernels decorate the bowl, at the center of which lies a deliciously rich piece of deep fried longtooth grouper from Fukuoka. A beautiful hommage to the humble grain of rice.
95 – The Perfect Comfort Food
🍽️ Confit Potato Roll, Almond Cream, Chicken Glaze, Caviar
📍 Nr. 30, Copenhagen (DK)
🌐 Website | Instagram
🗓️ 2025
If someone had to design my perfect plate of comfort food, it would come very close to this: a thinly sliced, crispy potato, swimming in a sea of brown butter and chicken stock, topped with a generous quenelle of caviar. Pure indulgence!
Nr. 30 is one of my favourite casual places in Copenhagen – and not only because of this delicious dish that regularly returns to the menu. The selection of small plates in this charming restaurant, located in a former butcher’s shop, never disappoints – always containing exciting seasonal dishes with pure flavours and outstanding ingredients. I will be back soon!
94 – 7 Forms of Chocolate
🍽️ 7 Forms of Chocolate
📍 Clooney, Auckland (NZ)
🧑🏼🍳 Nobu Lee
🗓️ 2017
As a hopeless sweet tooth, desserts are often the most rewarding part of a meal for me. And more often than not, chocolate is the reason why!
One of those unforgettable cocoa moments was in New Zealand at Clooney, once rated the country’s best restaurant. Their chocolate dessert showcased every facet of the ingredient: mousse, chip, ice cream, crunch – from dark to white. A spectacle of intense flavors and playful textures that resonates until today.
Clooney has since closed its doors, but chef Nobu Lee went on to open NOBUE in Taiwan, where he holds a Michelin star. I might have to plan a trip… and see what’s waiting on the dessert menu.
93 – Luxury in Humble Disguise
🍽️ Tarte Oxalis
📍 Flocons de Sel, Megève (FR)
🌐 Website | Instagram
🧑🏼🍳 Emmanuel Renaut
🗓️ 2020
The first bite at Restaurant Flocons de Sel sets the tone: Fresh acidity, bright aromas, the luxurious produce (crayfish) hidden underneath humble wood sorrel leaves from the chef‘s own garden. Together with a sparkling glass of Champagne and the breathtaking views over the Megève Valley, this is the perfect start to a meal!
Chef Emmanuel Renaut has coined an Alpine cuisine where regional produce and signature combinations take center stage. Enjoying a 3-Michelin-star dinner in his beautiful chalet up on the mountain tops of Haute Savoie is a truly unique experience. The place just underwent a year of renovation and will re-open in new splendor soon – the perfect time to visit again.
92 – Reviving Old Irish Traditions
🍽️ Smoked Eel Rosette • Leek Ash Powder
📍 Aniar, Galway (IE)
🌐 Website | Instagram
🧑🏼🍳 JP McMahon
🗓️ 2022
On Ireland’s west coast you’ll find steep cliffs, green meadows, a lot of sheep – and a quaint town with a lively and ambitious food scene: Galway.
Michelin-starred Aniar is the one leading the pack. “Aniar” is Gaelic for “from the west”, and indeed the focus of the restaurant is to represent the region’s climate, produce, and food tradition. Out of many creative dishes, the most memorable was this rosette waffle filled with sour cream and eel – a fish often disregarded but revived by chef JP McMahon. A joyful, feather-light yet intense experience in textures and flavours.
91 – Is This the Perfect Pastry?
🍽️ Brunsviger with Tonka Bean Ice Cream
📍 Alf, Copenhagen🇩🇰
👨🏼🍳 Malte Sørensen
🗓️ 2024
Sometimes it‘s the sophisticated dishes that blow your mind – and sometimes it‘s just the simple ones done to perfection!
Like with this dessert at Restaurant Alf, an intimate new Nordic restaurant in Copenhagen: Brunsviger, a traditional Danish pastry, is elevated to new hights by an unbelievebly fluffy yet crispy, double-baked laminated dough, perfectly crunchy caramel and a generous amount of melted butter. Served warm from the oven, and paired with a delicious scoop of ice cream, it simply is sweet treat heaven.
In a city blessed with some of the world‘s best pastries, this is probably the best I have ever had. I would not go as far as saying this dessert alone is worth a trip to Copenhagen – or would I?
A Gourmet Journey 