BlackBook On the Radar
BlackBook On the Radar GLOBAL GOURMAND Hotly awaited restaurant openings from the Amalfi Coast to Zurich, superlative suppliers and new cookbooks for the at-home chef STAR POWER Here’s what a handful of our favourite Michelin-star chefs have been up to recently. By Ute Junker Plénitude's "Partition Maraîchère", a veggie medley of bean, peas and jasmine flowers topped with a shellfish-juice and elderberry broth There are few chefs hotter right now than Mauro Colagreco. Having scooped up a Michelin star for Ceto at the Maybourne Riviera a mere five months after opening, Colagreco has also just thrown open the doors to his French Riviera flagship, Mirazur (mirazur.fr), after a threemonth renovation. Still to come this year: a permanent space at Capella Singapore and the Ibiza beach club El Silencio, and a new role helming the two restaurants at London’s Raffles OWO. Where Colagreco won a star just five months after opening, Arnaud Donckele earned an incredible three after his bold move to focus the menu at Paris’s Plénitude (chevalblanc.com) not on meats or vegetables but on sauces, broths, infusions and veloutés. That brings Donckele’s tally to six stars with his Saint-Tropez restaurant, La Vague d’Or, maintaining its three Michelin stars. Over in the Black Forest village of Baiersbronn in Germany, chef Torsten Michel is leading his celebrated Schwarzwaldstube restaurant (traube-tonbach.de) into a truly landmark year. Three decades after the restaurant first earned three Michelin stars, and two years after it was destroyed in a fire, PHOTO RICHARD HAUGHTON 20 CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM
Behind the Curtain These Michelin-star restaurant suppliers are a cut above thanks to direct sourcing FRIIS-HOLM CHOCOLATE Mikkel Friis-Holm refuses to compromise – and that’s precisely how the Danish chocolatier, who cut his teeth as a chef at California-cuisine stalwarts Chez Panisse and Citizen Cake, has managed to pocket “world’sbest” accolades for his single-bean bars and confections year after year. What sets him apart? His die-hard belief that chocolate – not unlike the grape in wine-making – should showcase the intrinsic flavour of each bean variety. To realise his purist vision, Friis-Holm offers producers in Central and South America above-market incentives to not only grow high-quality produce, but also to nurture specific varieties – a revolutionary approach, since most larger plantations, he explains, tend to grow a “huge, uncontrolled mix” of species. Friis-Holm’s virtuosity hasn’t gone unnoticed by his colleagues in the culinary world: he also supplies chocolate to Michelin-star restaurants across Denmark, including Noma, Alchemist and Henne Kirkeby Kro. “As one myself, I understand what chefs need,” he says. “It's great that chefs are starting to understand the possibilities of chocolate.” Instead of just figuring in a dessert by a designated patissier, it is, to Friis-Holm’s delight, “becoming an extension of what chefs already do.” friisholmchokolade.dk –Claudia Whiteus DIFFERENCE COFFEE Sometimes an idea is almost too obvious. Back in 2015, Amir Gehl wondered why he had to work so hard to have good coffee, both at home and at his favourite restaurants. A bit of experimentation led him to insert ultra-rare coffee into empty Nespresso-style pods – and the moment of revelation was instantaneous. Now, Gehl sources only the top-quality beans direct from growers, and his team roasts them to optimise for Nespresso machines. Don’t just take his word for it: 88 Michelin-star restaurants serve Difference Coffee, including three-star Piazza Duomo in Alba. differencecoffee.com – Brian Noone PHOTOS FROM TOP: JESPER RAIS, ZSUZSA ZICHO, MATTEO CARASSALE Michel and his team are again welcoming guests at this revered dining room. The building may be new but the food, and the lush views across the landscape, are as glorious as ever. It's been a similar transformation – without the dramatic reason – for Junichi Matsuzaki’s Noda restaurant (noda.nyc) in Manhattan. The omakase menu has long been the showstopper, and now at its new premises in the buzzing Nomad neighbourhood, the interiors are as memorable as what is on the plate. Take a seat on one of the cobalt-blue banquettes in the opulent lounge bar (tip: the Japanese whisky collection is world-class) before passing through a moon gate to the semicircular wooden counter where dinner is served. Farther south in Washington, DC, politicos are benefiting from the deft touch of Nicholas Stefanelli, who has demonstrated his mastery of Italian food at his Michelin-starred Masseria and is now showcasing the Greek side of his heritage at Philotimo (philotimodc.com), which opened in January. The prix- fixe menu gives a contemporary twist to regional Greek dishes. Loukoumades, for instance, are transformed from honey-drenched desserts to savoury snacks filled with taramasalata and topped with osetra caviar. The luscious Med view from Ceto at the Maybourne Riviera hotel CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM 21
