Attention to detail is essential in every Michelin-starred kitchen: each slice of grape must be cut to the same thickness to deliver the perfect crunch; the chawanmushi cannot be a degree too cold or too hot, or it loses its delicate consistency; the soufflé must leave the oven at the exact moment its texture reaches its peak. When every detail is just right, extraordinary dishes emerge. As is the case for the ten plates featured in this article – each among the best I have ever experienced.
60 – Chocolate Heaven
🍽️ Chocolat • Praliné • Fleur de Sel • Vanille
📍 Géosmine, Paris (FR)
🌐 Website | Instagram
👨🏼🍳 Maxime Bouttier
🗓️ 2024
Yes, I have a weakness for chocolate – but even if you don’t, you will fall in love with this dessert!
At his celebrated Michelin-starred Géosmine, chef Maxim Bouttier reimagines French classics with a modern touch. While many dishes on the menu shine – from caviar and foie gras to tuna and veal – it’s his signature chocolate dessert that stole my heart.
A deep, intense chocolate praliné topped with airy vanilla cream, dusted in dark chocolate powder and finished with a few flakes of fleur de sel. The chocolate flavour is astonishingly pure and powerful, and paired with the lightness of the cream and the gentle salinity, it’s nothing short of chocolate heaven.
59 – Bread, Butter, Bubbles
🍽️ Sourdough bread with Gyldenlund grains • Best butter in Denmark from Bent in Lindved
📍 Lyst, Vejle (DK)
🌐 Website | Instagram
👨🏼🍳 Daniel McBurnie
🗓️ 2023
At restaurant Lyst they take serving bread and butter seriously – very seriously.
A beautiful slice of sourdough arrives with a slab of butter so thick it isn’t served with a knife, but with a lifter to hoist it onto the bread. Take a bite, and your teeth leave a clear imprint in the golden layer.
To complete the serving there is always a glass of Krug. Bread, butter, and bubbles – a perfect trio.
58 – Classic Pleasures
🍽️ Kalbsfilet mit Eierschwämmli & Emmentaler
📍 The Restaurant at the Dolder Grand, Zürich (CH)
🌐 Website | Instagram
🧑🏼🍳 Heiko Nieder
🗓️ 2019
It’s rare for a meat dish to leave a truly lasting impression with me – but this veal filet at The Restaurant at Zurich’s The Dolder Grand hotel did exactly that. Perfectly tender with a delicate flavour, it was paired with an intense veal reduction, earthy chanterelles, and a subtle Emmental cream – coming together in a beautifully harmonious bite.
Served alongside a silky, buttery potato foam and a superb glass of Bordeaux from Château Pape Clément this is classic cuisine at its very best, and definitely a plate to remember.
57 – Pure Indulgence
🍽️ “Pure” • Peche de Vigne • Muscadine Grapes • Pink Coriander
📍 André, Singapore
🧑🏼🍳 André Chiang
🗓️ 2017
In a beautiful villa in central Singapore, chef André Chiang once ran one of the city’s best restaurants that was so personal it carried only one name: his own. Built around his „octaphilosophy“, an eight-pillar framework shaped by years in French Michelin-starred kitchens and his Singaporean heritage, the restaurant offered a stunningly creative menu. To this day, it remains one of the very best meals I’ve ever had.
One unforgettable highlight was the dessert “Pure”: as visually striking as it was delicious. An unbelievably intense peach cream paired with grapes created a fruity, floral sweetness where every bite felt like immersing yourself in a handful of cherry blossoms.
Shortly after my visit, Chiang closed the restaurant – a big loss for Singapore, and, in a way, a gain too: In the same space, Swedish superstar chef Björn Frantzen opened his restaurant FZN, which went on to earn three Michelin stars. So the dream of one day returning to dine in that villa lives on.
56 – Three-Star Hallelujah
🍽️ Chawanmushi • Frantzén Prestige Caviar • Aged Pork Broth
📍 Frantzén, Stockholm (SE)
🌐 Website | Instagram
👨🏼🍳 Björn Frantzén
🗓️ 2019
I love a good chawanmushi – the Japanese egg custard which, when done right, has the most beautiful balance of silkiness and structure, and serves as a perfect canvas for a wide range of flavours.
The best chawanmushi I’ve ever had was at restaurant Frantzén in Stockholm. Not only was it technically flawless, it was also an explosive flavour bomb: an intensely rich pork broth paired with fresh, salty caviar. Powerful yet refined, it was perfection in flavour, texture, and temperature.
Chef Frantzén earned 3 Michelin stars for a cuisine that makes zero compromises on ingredient quality and execution. Today, he has achieved the almost unthinkable: holding three Michelin stars for three different restaurants. This chawanmushi is just one more reminder that he is truly one of the great chefs of our time.
55 – Dessert on Cloud Nine
🍽️ Milk Soufflé
📍 Igniv, Zürich (CH)
🌐 Website | Instagram
🧑🏼🍳 Daniel Zeindlhofer
🗓️ 2023
What’s better than the airy, creamy texture of a perfect soufflé?
Soufflés are the pinnacle of pâtisserie – notoriously difficult to master, yet magical when done right. I’ve been lucky to try a few outstanding ones, but a particularly memorable version was served at 2-Michelin-starred Igniv in Zurich: Sweet milk, a gentle hint of vanilla, and that signature cloud-like fluffiness – just a dream!
A modern sharing-style concept created by entrepreneurial chef Andreas Caminada, Igniv has expanded to several locations worldwide. It‘s a refreshing new take on fine dining, and home to some truly delicious, unforgettable dishes.
54 – Playful Excellence
🍽️ Multi-spherical tatin of corn and foie
📍 Disfrutar, Barcelona (ES)
🌐 Website | Instagram
👨🏼🍳 Oriol Castro, Eduard Xatruch, Mateu Casañas
🗓️ 2023
A meal at Disfrutar is a truly unforgettable and, as the name promises, play- and delightful experience. Led by a trio of chefs trained at the legendary El Bulli, the restaurant carries forward that spirit of experimentation, technique, and texture-driven creativity. The menu unfolds as a mind-blowing sequence of ultra-inventive dishes.
One iconic bite – and one of my personal favourites – features a thin, crispy corn base topped with creamy foie gras terrine and crowned with liquid corn bubbles. Disfrutar’s signature multi-spherification technique, creating tiny connected spheres of liquid that burst in the mouth, adds an exhilarating textural dimension to this dish. Playful, creative, and absolutely delicious!
53 – Celebrating Japan in Belgium
🍽️ “FLUX” // Balfego Tuna • Koshihikari • Shiro Kombu • Tauyu abonito // Chawanmushi • North Sea Crab • Ginger Dashi • Sancho // Dumpling • Miso • Gambero Rosso • Seabuckthorn XO
📍 The Jane, Antwerp (BE)
🌐 Website | Instagram
🧑🏼🍳 Nick Bril
🗓️ 2021
There was a moment during my five-hour lunch at The Jane when the table suddenly felt gloriously crowded: three plates arrived at once, accompanied by three perfectly paired glasses of wine.
The course was called FLUX – a showcase of chef Nick Bril’s finesse with Japanese cuisine and a celebration of the symbiosis between food and pottery. The plates, crafted by a local ceramic artist especially for this course, were as much part of the experience as the dishes themselves.
On the palate, it was pure harmony: creamy tuna tartare, a flawless chawanmushi with fresh ginger, and a delicate prawn dumpling – three expressions coming together in a refined celebration of Japanese flavours.
Set inside a breathtaking former chapel at time of my visit, the 2-Michelin-starred restaurant has recently moved to a new location. And from what I’ve heard, the cuisine has reached new heights. Time for a return soon!
52 – Elevated Eggs
🍽️ Eggs in an Egg
📍 JAAN by Kirk Westaway, Singapore
🌐 Website | Instagram
🧑🏼🍳 Kirk Westaway
🗓️ 2017
Taking a childhood breakfast favourite to Michelin heights.
Chef Kirk Westaway grew up loving the British breakfast classic “eggs and soldiers”. In his elevated version at 2-Michelin-starred JAan in Singapore, a perfectly runny egg yolk with caviar rests on mushrooms and cauliflower purée.
The hen and fish eggs are presented in an egg-shaped bowl – giving the dish its name – and a gentle puff of hay smoke escapes as the lid is lifted tableside. Served with excellent sourdough bread, it’s breakfast nostalgia transformed into pure egg perfection.
51 – Pasta Perfection
🍽️ Linguine Pasta • Red Peppers
📍 Ristorante Reale, Castel di Sangro (IT)
🌐 Website | Instagram
🧑🏼🍳 Niko Romito
🗓️ 2022
Is it worth flying to Rome and driving three hours into the mountains of Abruzzo just for a meal? The moment you take the first bite of this pasta, the answer is: yes!
Ristorante Reale is a 3-Michelin-starred laboratory of modern Italian cuisine. Chef Niko Romito has developed a distinct, produce-driven expression of Italian cooking, widely celebrated for its clarity, precision, and purity of flavour. Each course in his tasting menu revolves around a single ingredient.
The dish dedicated to red peppers paired perfectly cooked pasta with an incredibly smooth and intensely flavoured red pepper sauce – a flawless Italian symbiosis.
And if the meal alone isn’t reason enough to make the journey, you can spend the night on the beautiful property and wake up to breakfast from a 3-star kitchen the next morning. A special treat in itself.
A Gourmet Journey 