My gourmet journey has taken me to very different places: a luxurious chalet in the French Alps, an incredibly hard-to-book pizza bar high up in a Tokyo skyscraper, a Michelin-starred restaurant in a former public toilet building in the German city of Hannover, a French-focused wine bar in Kyoto of all places, and an old thatched house in the sand dunes on the North Sea island of Sylt. All of these play a role in this next excerpt of the best dishes I have ever eaten, numbers 90-81.
90 – The Incredible Carrot
🍽️ „Lamb Carrot“ • Braised Lamb • Sheep‘s Milk Yoghurt
📍 Core by Clare Smyth, London (UK)
🌐 Website | Instagram
👩🏼🍳 Clare Smyth
🗓️ 2022
While chef Clare Smyth serves wonderful meat and seafood in her elegant yet cozy three-star restaurant in Noting Hill, this memorable dish showcases a surprising vegetable as the main ingredient: a carrot.
Sourced from Sussex, it’s supposedly Britain’s best carrots only that leave the kitchen at Core by Clare Smyth. They are served in excuisite forms: cooked in lamb stock, confit in lamb fat, and even their green tops make it on the plate – as a pesto. The carrots are unbelievably sweet and intense in flavour. Paired with tender braised lamb and with an exceptional glass of wine, this is a rich and fulfilling dish.
89 – Pizza Heaven in the Skies of Tokyo
🍽️ Pizzino • Kurkku Fields Mascarpone • Black Olives • Autumn Truffle
📍 The Pizza Bar on 38th, Toky (JP)
🌐 Website | Instagram
👩🏼🍳 Daniele Cason
🗓️ 2024
On the 38th floor of the Mandarin Oriental hotel, with breathtaking views over the vast city of Tokyo, you can not only taste the second best pizza in the world – according to the global 50 Top Pizza ranking – but also take part in a brilliant and unique experience: pizza omakase.
At The Pizza Bar on 38th, chef Daniele Cason is combining the popular Italian dish with the Japanese serving tradition known from high-end sushi or tempura restaurants. The chef creates a menu of 6 pizza courses (plus some starters and desserts) based on the day‘s fresh ingredients. Each pizza is sliced into 8 pieces and served to the diners at the 8-seat counter around the pizza oven, allowing all of them to taste a diverse menu.
The neapolitan-style pizzas are made of a 48-hour fermented dough that is so smooth it literally melts in your mouth. Yet the most striking dish for me was not one of the traditional pizzas but the crispy double baked signature Pizzino, filled with deliciously creamy mascarpone and topped with flavorful truffle. I could bite into this luxurious sandwich every day!
88 – The Giant Red Shrimp
🍽️ Carabinero on the Japanese Grill • Durban Curry • Shiso
📍 Pavillon, Züric (CH)
🧑🏼🍳 Laurent Eperon
🗓️ 2019
Carabinero is one of my favourite crustaceans: rich, savory, nutty in flavour and firm yet creamy in texture when prepared raw or just gently cooked.
I enjoyed a perfect specimen of its kind at 2-Michelin-starred restaurant Pavillon in the stunning Baur au Lac hotel in Zurich. Chef Laurent Eperon served the carabinero slightly grilled, bringing with it just a touch of smoke, and in classical combination with a mild, light, and sweet curry; topped with some sliced shiso leaves for additional freshness.
While the Baur au Lac has since replaced French fine dining at Pavillon with a more casual food concept, the memory of this exceptional serving of a high-quality ingredient paired with carefully balanced flavours lives on.
87 – Traditional yet Modern French Cuisine
🍽️ Métissage de coques et de tomates
📍 Troisgros, Ouche (FR)
🌐 Website | Instagram
🧑🏼🍳 Michel & César Troisgros
🗓️ 2020
I have enjoyed many exciting meals in France, the motherland of haute cuisine. And one of them stood out as being the most touching and memorable for me: at Maison Troisgros in Ouches, where the Troisgros family have held 3 Michelin stars since 1968 and over four generations of chefs – a world record.
At the time of my visit, father Michel and son César were running the kitchen together. Each dish on their menu was crafted with a meticulous eye for details and original, unique combinations of delicate flavours. The Troisgros signature of ingenious yet humble dishes, often letting vegetables play the main role, ran throughout the menu.
On this plate, covered by a thin layer of frozen clam juice, lie the sweetest tomatoes, topped by thinly chopped tomatoes, clams, kumquat slices, and Rau Ram leaves (Vietnamese coriander). Cold tomato broth is added tableside to round off this subtle yet spectacular symphony of flavours.
In 2023, César Troisgros took over sole responsibility of the kitchen. I am dreaming of going back to the Loire to see how the unique French cuisine at Maison Troisgros has evolved since.
86 – Shockingly Good Chocolate
🍽️ “Choc au Lac” • Mousse • Flan • Biscuit • Glace
📍 Le Roc de Yoann Conte, Veyrier-du-La (FR)
🌐 Website | Instagram
🧑🏼🍳 Yoann Conte
🗓️ 2025
Pronounced “chocolat”, the French word for chocolate, in a funny play of words this dessert’s name translates to “shock at the lake”.
The lake it presumably refers to is Lac Annecy in the French Alps, where Yoann Conte has built a little gourmet paradise: his hotel La Maison Bleue is a beautiful villa directly at the lake housing 2-Michelin-star restaurant La Table and casual sister restaurant Le Roc. Its terrace is one of the most stunning places I have ever dined at.
The shock the dish must refer to is one of pleasure when you bite into its many components: the creamy, light mousse, the perfect flan, the waver-thin, crispy biscuit, and, hidden under the latter, the smooth ice cream. These all come together to produce the most intense, pure chocolate taste. Combined with the jaw-dropping sunset views of Lake Annecy: Shockingly good!
85 – When the Bread Is the Highlight
🍽️ Chicken fat parker house rolls with kefir cultured jersey cream butter
📍 Connection by Alan Bates, Copenhage (DK)
👨🏼🍳 Alan Bates
🗓️ 2023
Bread and butter. The most basic of foods. But done right, it is also so soo good. Even at the very best restaurants, the bread course can be one of the highlights of a meal.
At the intimate Copenhagen restaurant Connection by Alan Bates I enjoyed one of the best breads of my life: fluffy, buttery, yet super crispy parker house rolls, basted in herb-infused chicken fat. It’s English chef Alan Bates’ elevated take on the bread historically eaten by the serving staff in English manor houses: Baked in the oven under – and hence soaked with the juices of – the meat served to the master, the flavorful servants’ bread may have tasted better than the meat itself.
Alan Bates has since moved on to head the 2-Michelin-star kitchen at Henne Kirkeby Kro out on the Danish countryside. I hope for the guests of the luxurious inn that his signature bread followed him there.
84 – Fresh, Creamy Indulgence
🍽️ Gastrounika Koan Selection Caviar • White Asparagus • Sesame
📍 Koan at Relæ, Copenhage (DK)
🌐 Website | Instagram
🧑🏼🍳 Kristian Baumann
🗓️ 2022
At his Copenhagen-based restaurant Koan, chef Kristian Baumann connects New Nordic cuisine with his Korean roots, creating a unique style of cooking that was awarded 2 Michelin stars in record time, only a few months after opening.
I was lucky to taste his cooking at a pop-up of Koan at restaurant Relæ before he even opened shop at a permanent location. The meal was simply mindblowing! A creative menu filled with surprises and many dishes that just hit the spot: explosions of intense yet complex and elegant flavours.
This serving combined a particularly great piece of asparagus – my favourite vegetable – with caviar and a creamy sauce on a white sesame base. Extraordinarily delicious!
83 – French Classics, Japanese Style
🍽️ Crêpes Suzette
📍 Cave de K, Kyot (JP)
🌐 Website
🗓️ 2024
Cave de K is one of Kyoto‘s hidden gems. At its long wooden counter, knowledgeable staff don’t serve Japanese specialties – but European wine, cheese, and desserts. Its selection of exceptional (mainly French) wines by the glass is second to none I have found anywhere in the world.
The food menu mainly contains some outstanding desserts – the Crêpes Suzette in particular are done to perfection. Prepared tableside, the warm flambéed pancakes are super tasty, sweet, and buttery, with just the right amounts of alcohol and orange, and completed by a perfect scoop of yuzu-milk ice cream. It is no surprise that I had the best version of the French classic in Japan: If the Japanese do something, they do it right!
Combined with an amazing sweet wine – the famous Château d’Yquem is only one of several choices by the glass – you have all the ingredients for a great time.
82 – The Lobster’s Tail
🍽️ Hummer • Bärlauch
📍 Jante, Hannove (DE)
🌐 Website | Instagram
🧑🏼🍳 Tony Hohlfeld
🗓️ 2023
Less is more! This dish is a good example for how the main reason for a memorable bite is often simplicity combined with outstanding produce quality. If the main ingredient of a dish is of amazing taste – the less the chef adds to it, the better.
At two-Michelin-starred restaurant Jante in Hannover, chef Tony Hohlfeld allows this fantastic lobster tail, carefully marinated and slightly flamed, to be the star of the show. A wild garlic mayonnaise adds extra flavour. But really this course is all about a perfect piece of seafood, and that’s what makes it exceptional.
81 – A Plate of Summer by the Sea
🍽️ Aprikose • Gewürztagetes • Rose
📍 Söl‘ring Hof, Syl (DE)
🌐 Website | Instagram
🧑🏼🍳 Jan-Philipp Berner
🗓️ 2021
The posh German North Sea island of Sylt is dotted with fine establishments to satisfy cravings for fresh oysters, local crabs, or a glass of crisp German sekt or riesling. But one place truly stands out: nestled among the sand dunes along the windy coastline, restaurant Söl’ring Hof offers a more creative and refined take on Sylter cuisine. Under the culinary direction of Jan-Philip Berner, the restaurant has become an institution for Nordic-inspired gastronomy, holding 2 Michelin stars for the last two decades.
The highlight of my meal in the dunes was a dessert of poached apricots, apricot sorbet, a sweet golden marigold jus, and a delicate rose chip. A rare mouthful of pure, sun-soaked sweetness and the perfect finale to a summer evening by the sea.
A Gourmet Journey 