People

Not all chefs follow the plan. Some make noise, others make change. Matt Orlando, the San Diego-born chef who left the world’s most famous kitchens, comes back to stir Copenhagen’s culinary scene, again. 

In a brutalist villa amid historic polders on the Flemish coast, Willem Hiele cooks in sync with the sea, the fire, and sky. The sea is moody, the fire changes, the wind shifts - and the menu follows. This is a kitchen ruled by conditions and what survives them.

Maybe it’s the air in Alba - a town shaped by Barolo, truffles, and the ideas of Slow Food. Or perhaps it’s just him. At Piazza Duomo, Enrico Crippa serves dishes that don’t wait to be liked. They unfold according to their own logic. The rhythm and timing, non-negotiable. And if you rush, you miss both the flavour and the meaning.

What I remember from previous visits to Uliassi, even more than a dish or a flavour, is the way I felt. The sunny day flowing into the white, calming room. The sea breeze through white curtains. The quiet bitterness folded into a sauce. The man in chef whites and round black glasses drifting past the table like he’s testing a theory. That’s Mauro.

In a world of Instagram-ready restaurant overload, Maido is a reminder that excellence can still feel like a hug. It’s Japanese by lineage, Peruvian by blood, and now officially the best restaurant in the world by The World’s 50 Best Restaurants. The vibrant, precise, and utterly unpretentious creation of chef Mitsuharu “Micha” Tsumura, with astonishing food and a very good memory of where...

In the bustling heart of Copenhagen, a gastronomic revelation awaits discerning diners. KOAN, the brainchild of Michelin-starred chef Kristian Baumann, is a fusion of heritage, innovation, and a heartfelt homage to the flavours and stories that shaped his life.

It begins where most maps stop: the marshlands of the Bahía de Cádiz, in a tide mill that predates colonialism and common sense. Here, on a salt-licked outcrop better known for mosquitoes than miracles, Ángel León has constructed a temple to culinary heresy. Not a restaurant, not really. Aponiente is a laboratory, a lecture, and occasionally, dinner.