Farm chic
Thanks to the Venice Biennale, from now until November, La Serenissima is crammed with even more crowds, as cool creative types jostle with the usual coachload legions. It seems everyone, from the beautiful to the less so, are scrambling for a taste of Mara’s seafood at 1-Michelin-starred Da Fiore, and the VVIPs can’t get enough of the special white-gloved service they receive at Harry’s Bar, while you get ignored. It doesn’t have to be that way however, as those in-the-know slip away by boat to nearby foodie getaways like Venissa and Locanda Cipriani, for sumptuous meals, wine and idyllic lagoon living.
People in glass houses eat very well indeed
Have you heard the joke about Dutch cuisine? Unfortunately, there are too many, but things are a-changing. Once upon a time, a farmer didn’t eat what he didn’t know, but the days of ‘Wat de boer niet kent, vreet hij niet’ are fast disappearing and the city’s savvy denizens embrace Amsterdam’s fab multicultural melting pot of flavours. French, Euro and ethnic cuisines rule, especially Turskish and Senegalese, and if you know where to look, there’s plenty of toothsome dining to be had. If you want delicious Dutch food however (no, it’s not an oxymoron), no need to befriend a farmer, simply take yourself off to…
As Regional Chairman for The S. Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants‘s Academy (and Founder and Publishing Editor of LUXE City Guides), Grant Thatcher writes a word about Hong Kong‘s gastronomic delights for The World’s 50 Best Restaurants Regional Spotlight.
The door to foodie heaven
If you think ‘local’, ‘sustainable’ and ‘Cantonese cooking’ in Hong Kong are mutually exclusive concepts, you’re right. It’s either ocean-depleting abalone and endangered shark fin delicacies, or mass produced battery hens, thrice frozen prawns and genetically modified tomatoes. Bad for the environment, bad for you. Well, The Chairman is out to change that, and they’re doing it with dishes to rival those being served at the top end of town. Intrigued, we hot-footed it quicksticks, or should that be chopsticks…
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