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ULTIMATE LUXURIES

Described as a paradise within a paradise, Le Saint Géran Hotel on the island of Mauritius serves world-class food, which guests can savor in private dining pavilions suspended over the Indian Ocean.

This selection is, without a doubt, at the extreme end of great dining, and a dedicated food-lover embarking on any one of these quests would be well advised to go prepared. First, patience and persistence are required: For some establishments, it may take months, or even years, to secure a table. Once inside, an ability to live fully in the moment is also an asset, to relax and enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime experience. And finally, once the bill arrives, a strong constitution (and a healthy bank account) are vital. Indulgence on this scale rarely comes cheap. These gastronomic glories take many rich and varied forms. Sometimes luxury comes in the shape of a rare and carefully sourced ingredient, such as the Kobe beef of Japan. It may be the opportunity to experience the artistry of a chef such as Ferran Adrià, whose multisensory experiments draw global gourmets to his elBulli in rural Catalonia. For others, luxury is as much about the setting as about the food—whether from the roof of a Manhattan skyscraper, from alongside Venice’s Grand Canal, or from a mountaintop hostelry high in the Alps.

NEW YORK

NEW YORK INSTITUTIONS

The art-deco Chrysler Building towers over Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan, one of New York’s cultural hubs.

Indulge yourself with the city’s finest cuisine, drawn from all four corners of the Earth.

The very best places for food can be found both uptown and downtown. Gallery-hopping in Chelsea? Check out the superlative sushi at Morimoto. Headed toward Lincoln Center and crazy about cheese? Step into New York City’s luxury Picholine (with a fabulous cheese cave) and try chef Terrance Brennan’s light crepe with peeled roast pear on a bed of ricotta cheese and Zinfandel syrup of orange and raspberry concentrate. You’ll not find a match for such perfection in texture, color, and taste anywhere. Unless, that is, you head to Brennan’s Artisanal Fromagerie, Bistro & Wine Bar on Park Avenue, where some 250 world cheeses feature on the menu. If you are hanging out in Greenwich Village and want the best organic farm-to-table experience, drop in to Blue Hill, or join the crowds and high energy at Lupa Osteria Romana for traditional Italian trattoria fare. If the elegance of a three-star Michelin restaurant appeals to you, make a reservation well ahead of your visit at Le Bernardin, the greatest of them all, whose dining room excels in luxury with museum-quality oil paintings on the walls and ample space between tables permitting conversation during dinner. Union Square Cafe is the most popular top restaurant in New York City and specializes in the perfection of American seasonal cuisine, often paired with California wines.

Three of the Best

■ Head for the Lower East Side if you want to experience the most creative and inventive cuisine in the city. At wd-50, chef Wylie Dufresne thrills with unusual combinations: How about foie gras, candied olives, green peas, and beet juice? Or beef tongue with fried mayo and tomato molasses?

■ At the midtown Le Bernardin, seafood is the passion of celebrity chef Eric Ripert, who divides his fish menu into three categories: Almost Raw, Barely Touched (poached), and Lightly Cooked. Try the thinly sliced conch marinated Peruvian-style in dried corn.

■ At Picholine on the Upper East Side, chef-owner Terrance Brennan’s fricassee of Maine oysters with leeks, potatoes, and bacon bits in a creamy vermouth sauce with sprigs of baby parsley is absolute ambrosia.

ILLINOIS

CHICAGO STYLE

A Heart of Palm dessert from Alinea: bite-sized slices of heart of palm are hollowed out and stuffed with Intensely flavored foams and gels.

Inventive chefs crafting sophisticated contemporary dishes have turned the city into a great dining destination.

The Windy City is a place where meals featuring layered flavors are a notable part of the landscape. One of the city’s most venerated chefs is Charlie Trotter—winner of ten James Beard Foundation awards and author of 14 cookbooks—whose food empire started in an eponymous townhouse in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. His eight-course tasting menus, which are never repeated, showcase seasonal ingredients. Selections from the restaurant’s three wine cellars make this an even finer dining experience. And if you can’t get a reservation, you can pick up gourmet takeout at Trotter’s To Go, a big retail shop several blocks from the flagship restaurant. An evening downtown at Tru feels like being treated to Mediterranean-influenced French food in a contemporary art museum. Sweet is as much the focus as savory on the six- to ten-course tasting menu, which includes pastry chef Gale Gand’s decadent concoctions. Sturgeon aficionados will be lured by the Luxury Caviar Staircase, while the candy cart is beyond even Willy Wonka’s wildest dreams. If your culinary tastes lean toward foams and gels, make a reservation at Alinea, where the techniques pioneered by Spanish chef Ferran Adrià of elBulli are but a springboard to the innovative dishes here. These dining establishments also have their entertainment value—especially at Charlie Trotter’s and Tru, where you can reserve the kitchen table.

Presidential Favorites

■ The Obamas had their first post-election-night dinner out at Spiaggia, known for its sophisticated take on Italian cuisine, lake views, and cheese cave.

■ Chef Rick Bayless was mentioned as a serious contender for White House chef. His casual eatery Frontera Grill (James Beard Foundation’s Outstanding Restaurant of the Year, 2007) and the more upscale Topolobampo both honor authentic Mexican culinary traditions.

■ Michelle Obama often dines at Sepia, next door to the shop of Maria Pinto, one of her designers of choice.

Guests enjoy private dining at Wynn’s Bartolotta.

NEVADA

LAS VEGAS HOT SPOTS

Roasted Duck and Crab Soup at Bellagio’s Sensi

With the arrival in Vegas of some of the world’s superchefs, fine dining has been added to the city’s star attractions.

Las Vegas has come a long way since its experiments in building casinos that look like fiberglass castles and circuses. Old-fashioned glamor is back in Sin City, and along with the velvet-lined gaming halls, the world-class spas, and deluxe hotel suites, the allure of Vegas has drawn some of the biggest names in global cuisine. Head to the Bellagio hotel, where Picasso, a love song of a dining room overlooking the casino’s famous fountains, is filled with sculpture and paintings by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. Sample chef Julian Serrano’s sublime tasting menu—one of the city’s best. Elsewhere, Guy Savoy at Caesars Palace, Joël Robuchon at the MGM Grand, and Alain Ducasse at Mix (in THEhotel at Mandalay Bay), are all worth seeking out for that ultimate Vegas dining experience. Even Thomas Keller of The French Laundry in California—often cited as America’s best chef—has an outpost at Bouchon at The Venetian, which serves a startlingly good breakfast. Early birds can tuck into light-as-a-feather French toast, handmade pastries, and perfect omelets. No expense is spared at some of these restaurants. At Wynn’s Bartolotta, for example, high rollers can sample fish that have been flown direct to the desert from the Mediterranean and cooked in an authentic Italian style.

The Best Buffets in Town

Most of Vegas’s famous buffets are best avoided by the serious foodie. There are, happily, a few exceptions:

■ The buffets at the Wynn and Bellagio are a cut above the rest. They also provide a champagne brunch every weekend.

■ Every Sunday, Bally’s hosts a Sterling Brunch. It is the priciest buffet in town, but you will get value for your money with the bottomless Perrier-Jouët champagne, as much lobster as you can eat, oysters, wild mushrooms, cedar-planked salmon, and an array of beautifully cooked meats and seafood. Caviar also features, although you will have to ask for it at the sushi bai—it is the only buffet offering not on display.

CALIFORNIA

SAN FRANCISCO CHIC EATS

Cavallo Point commands impressive views across San Francisco Bay.

Flower power, Bay Area entrepreneurialism, and agricultural bounty are all packed into one bowl.

California is renowned for a unique cuisine that blends fresh-from-the-farm ingredients, straight-from-the-net seafood, and cutting-edge cooking methods. Chef and cookbook author Alice Waters is credited with creating what is generally known as “California cuisine” when she opened a modest little eatery called Chez Panisse in Berkeley in the early 1970s. With menus based mainly on organic ingredients and sustainable farming, Chez Panisse was soon the leading edge of a whole new trend in food, one that synced perfectly with California’s counterculture vibe. The kitchen at Chez Panisse begot a whole new generation of Bay Area chefs dedicated to the same philosophy, maestros like Jeremiah Tower, Mark Miller, and Russell Moore, who would redefine American cooking. While Tower eagerly fused Asian and California ingredients with startling presentation at his landmark Stars restaurant in San Francisco, Miller and Moore went in another direction, reaching back to California’s Hispanic past at upscale eateries like the Santa Fe Bar & Grill in Berkeley and Camino in Oakland. Bay Area dishes can be as simple as Dungeness crab with asparagus, and rack of lamb with fried artichokes, or something much more exotic sounding, like whole roasted petrale sole with farro, rapini, and green garlic. Either way, it is a whole new adventure in eating.

Seared Colorado lamb rack, one of the specialties at Campton Place

Three Stars of California Cuisine

■ Murray Circle is located at Cavallo Point, across the bay from San Francisco, in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge—one of California’s most romantic locations.

■ Named one of America’s best new chefs by Food & Wine magazine, Jeremy Fox labored for the likes of Gordon Ramsay before opening his own restaurant, Ubuntu.

■ At Campton Place chef Srijith Gopinath and sommelier Richard Dean have created a nine-course degustation menu to match one of San Francisco’s most elegant settings.

CARIBBEAN

EXOTIC ST. BARTH

Perched on the hillside above Gustavia, the Hotel Carl Gustaf has stunning views of one of the Caribbean’s prettiest bays.

Darling destination of the rich and famous, the hilly little island of St. Barth is the epitome of trendy relaxation.

After whizzing along the island’s narrow, winding roads in a rental car, make sure you have it valet-parked in front of St. Barth’s coolest restaurant: Le Ti St.-Barth in Pointe Milou on the island’s northwest coast. The restaurant’s deep-red walls and the dim glow of chandeliers set a fabulously sexy night scene. Start with the Thai beef salad, and if that brings out your inner carnivore, be sure to order “Le Lion Qui Rit”—a tremendously tasty beef dish—for your entrée. In this popular haunt of the beautiful people, your meal will probably be accompanied by a fashion show of models sashaying between the tables—Le Ti St.-Barth provides some of the best spectator sport on the island. For a quieter dining experience, try The Wall House in the island’s capital, Gustavia, where seafood with a French flare is the main fare. Order some of the delectable lobster dishes or the mahi mahi filet, but don’t overlook the unexpected treat of duck breast in a red wine sauce. And for the best spot to sip cocktails as you watch the sun go down, sit by the pool in the Hotel Carl Gustaf on the hillside overlooking Gustavia bay. This luxury hotel also serves gourmet French- and Caribbean-inspired cuisine.

Creole Almond

This eye-opening after-dinner drink was created by chief bartender Jacky Bertrand of the Hotel Carl Gustaf. The combination of caffeine and alcohol will keep you partying into the small hours.

Pour all the ingredients into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake vigorously and strain into two chilled martini glasses. Sprinkle with cinnamon and place a coffee bean on top.

At French chef Joël Robuchon’s Hong Kong L’Atelier, diners get to watch their food being prepared in the open kitchen.

CHINA

BEIJING

Located in the heart of Beijing, the Forbidden City was the imperial palace for almost five centuries.

China’s economic boom has led to a proliferation of top-notch restaurants serving delicious local and international dishes.

Not so very long ago, high-end dining in Beijing meant shark’s fin, abalone, and bird’s nest soup added to multicourse banquets, more to demonstrate wealth or give face to guests than for flavor. The service was also invariably hostile and the surroundings shoddy. Now not only is the best of every Chinese school of cooking served with aplomb, but the capital—once so impenetrable to outsiders—is now seeing an invasion of big-name chefs from around the world. Nor does eating foreign food in Beijing necessarily mean visiting some blandly international hotel. New York’s Daniel Boulud has opened Maison Boulud in the original American embassy, a stately neoclassical building whose dignified interior once again plays host to diplomats in search of American-influenced French dishes created around local ingredients. The best of the east is here, too. At Shiro Matsu, found in a smart glass box next door, fugu master Yakuwa Kazuaki demonstrates his years of training in the preparation of this Japanese fish delicacy. Outsiders are also updating local cuisine. Jereme Leung has arrived from Singapore to open Whampoa Club and serves complex, irresistible updates of the capital’s classics. The arresting lobby features myriad lightbulbs in birdcages, while the main dining room is buried beneath a traditional courtyard house with light filtered through an overhead goldfish pond.

A Cornucopia of Flavors

Chinese food overseas is typically a bland and adulterated version of Cantonese highlights. Menus ignore hot and numbing Sichuan, fiery Hunan, delicate Huaiyang dishes from Hangzhou, sweet and oily Shanghai, sour Guangxi, vinegary Shanxi, and fruity Yunnan dishes.

Luckily for modern visitors, regional food is currently in vogue with Beijingers, with the city attracting the finest culinary talent from around the country. Not to be missed is shuizhuyu, Sichuan-style sliced catfish in a bath of pepper-and-numb-spice-filled oil; Dai minority zhutong zhurou, steamed pork and coriander served in a bamboo tube, or mizhi zhibao luyu, the “secret” paper-wrapped fish of the Kejia minority from the mountains of the southeast.

JAPAN

BEST OF JAPAN

Gold leaf makes a Japanese dessert of sweet dumplings shimmer.

With a total of 191 Michelin stars awarded to its restaurants, the Japanese capital has more stars than any city in the world.

Tokyo’s ryotei, the traditional, upscale restaurants that are found throughout the city, are the best places to try the distinctively marbled Wagyu beef that has gained global culinary fame. This tender, richly flavored meat comes from a group of cattle breeds that are predisposed to produce a high level of unsaturated fat—hence the marbling. Several areas of the country are famous for their Wagyu cattle, including Kobe in the Hyogo Prefecture. The Japanese do not cut corners; in order for beef to carry the Kobe label, the cattle must be raised in a traditional way—being fed on grain and beer, and even receiving a regular brushing and massage. Try Wagyu beef in sukiyaki or shabu shabu, in which thinly sliced beef and vegetables are simmered in broth at the table and served with dipping sauces. Another Japanese specialty, fugu, or blowfish, is poisonous if not prepared correctly, and fugu chefs have to be licensed by the government. It is served either raw as sashimi (sliced so thinly that it is transparent), simmered with vegetables, or in salads. To add a taste of luxury, literally, some upscale restaurants decorate dishes with flecks or sheets of gold leaf.

Fugu, or blowfish, is a Japanese delicacy.

Temple Food

Seasonal ingredients are key to good Japanese cooking, and one of the best ways to savor the delicate flavor of vegetables in their prime is shojin ryori. This is the traditional vegetarian cuisine of Buddhist temples, with a number of ornate dishes consisting of vegetables, tofu, beans, and fruit served over several courses. An avoidance of meat is one of the central tenets of Buddhism.

Shojin ryori provides a cultural experience to match the gastronomical one, with each meal eaten in a traditional environ, such as a private tatami mat room.

Great emphasis is placed on using seasonal ingredients and shojin ryori cooks take care not to waste any ingredients. The greens and peelings of vegetables such as carrots, for example, are prepared by simmering in a little water or may be added to soups.

Shojin ryori is frequently served in restaurants located near to Zen temples or can be sampled in many of the temples themselves, provided that a reservation is made in advance.

Fall color frames the Kiyomizu Temple, Kyoto.

JAPAN

KAISEKI FEASTING

The serving bowls reflect shapes that are found in nature.

This feast has been described as “perfection on a plate,” and Kyoto is one of the best places to try it.

Originally created by Zen monks, the sumptuous Japanese treat known as kaiseki has only recently come to the attention of the outside world. In medieval times, it was a humble repast of Buddhist monks, accompanying the tea ceremony, but over the centuries it has evolved into a 14-course feast incorporating dishes that change with the seasons. Even today the spread is rarely found outside Japan because of a painstaking reliance on fresh ingredients that can be found only in and around the Japanese archipelago. Most of the courses are either vegetable- or seafood-based, although in modern times some of the more leading-edge chefs have started including meat as well. “I try to create a work of art in my dishes,” says Yoshihiro Murata, one of Japan’s most renowned kaiseki chefs. And indeed, each dish is a miniature work of art, almost too precious to eat if not for the fact that incredible (and often unusual) flavors and textures await the palate. Although the meal can be found at top restaurants around Japan, Kyoto is home to the very best kaiseki eateries. Here diners are treated to an enviable experience in elegant establishments—Murata’s Kikunoi restaurant among them—where the exquisitely presented courses are served in private tatami dining suites by geisha-like hostesses wearing silk kimonos.

Kaiseki at Kikunoi

Kaiseki incorporates hundreds of unique and often restaurant-specific menus. Each menu consists of different types of food, including appetizers, sashimi, simmered, grilled, and steamed dishes, and others decided on by the chef. Here are a few classic dishes from the Kikunoi restaurant in Kyoto:

■ Hassun (an appetizer that sets the seasonal theme of the meal): Three houzuki (strawberry tomatoes) stuffed with sea cucumber, mountain peach, and a small freshwater fish called ayu from streams in the Japanese Alps.

■ Mukozuke (sashimi, or sliced fish): Thinly sliced onaga (red snapper) and hamo (conger eel) sashimi served on a lotus leaf with ume (sour plum sauce) and wasabi mustard.

■ Noka-choko course (a palate-cleanser): Ichijiku (boiled fig) in white miso, served cold.

■ Shiizakana (a substantial dish): Hotpot with boiled eggs, roasted eggplant, and fish seasoned with mitsuba (Japanese wild parsley) and sansho (pepper powder).

■ Tome-wan (a palate-cleanser): Steamed rice with hamo wrapped in a lotus leaf, pea soup with sesame jelly, and pickled cucumber with eggplant.

■ Mizumono (dessert): Green-tea shaved ice with red beans and jellied rice balls.

RUSSIA

MOSCOW

A waitress in 18th-century costume prepares one of the lavish tables at Turandot, Moscow’s most luxurious restaurant.

Top chefs, the choicest ingredients, and lavish settings make Moscow’s restaurants among the very best for opulent dining.

For an authentic slice of pre-Revolutionary Russia, head for the Café Pushkin, with an upstairs dining room that more closely resembles a grand library; Yar, which has remained a decadent haunt of Moscow’s elite almost without a break since its foundation in 1826; or CDL at the Central House of Writers, where fine cuisine is served amid a riot of baronial splendor. For a taste of the good old bad old days, Gorki and Politica offer Soviet-style retro chic, but with nothing communist about the food or the service. International cuisine of almost every description is also well represented, with sushi and Asian fusion currently all the rage. Dine on Vietnamese-style frogs’ legs wrapped in lily pads alongside oligarchs at Opium in Barvikha Luxury Village, or for pan-Asian cuisine in a setting that pays homage to the Palace of Versailles, try Turandot. As in imperial days, French cuisine is again in vogue, with places such as Mon Plaisir, an 18th-century aristocratic throwback in a classical mansion; Restaurant Villa, resembling a Côte d’Azur villa with Mediterranean dishes to match; or Casual, for mainly Provençal dishes. For the best views in town, reserve a table overlooking the Kremlin and Red Square at upscale Jeroboam in the Ritz-Carlton, or at Yoko, a fine Japanese restaurant with superb views towards Christ the Savior Cathedral.

Vodka

While vintage champagne is a favorite plutocrat tipple, no trip to Russia is complete without sampling vodka-a clear beverage with an alcohol content of 35-50 percent. To drink it Russian-style, the vodka should be chilled, ideally for several hours in a freezer, and drunk neat in one shot, accompanied by a toast, followed by zakusky-bite-size snacks, such as smoked meats, caviar, and crackers. Russians often alternate vodka with soft drinks. It is considered bad form not to finish an opened bottle of vodka, and some bottles come with lids that do not reseal. Banging glasses loudly on the table is appropriate only at wedding parties.

Apart from classics such as Stolichnaya and Moskovskaya, try unusual vodkas, such as Pertsovka-vodka flavored with red and black peppers and other spices. Limonnaya is flavored with lemons, Kerenski with chocolate, Sputnik with horseradish, and Stolichnaya Ohranj is an orange vodka.

SWITZERLAND

KLOSTERS

This playground of royalty and the jet set has retained its alpine village character and is as stunning in winter as it is in summer.

This sophisticated alpine playground is a wonderful place to relax and enjoy sun, snow, and superb food.

Glistening snowcapped mountains form a magical backdrop to the Michelin-starred Hotel Walserhof in the Swiss village of Klosters—winter playground of European royalty and the world’s richest commoners. Inside the chalet-style hotel, age-old carved wood, warm stone, and hints of pine and conifer promise a cozy but elegant dining ambience. Slim candles ensconced in silver candlesticks radiate a golden glow off champagne-colored walls. Subtle aromas waft from the Bündner stone oven, prompting anticipation of freshly prepared creations from chef Armin Amrein. Arouse the taste buds with a foamy potato soup with Serrano ham chips and white Alba truffle. Next, a flawlessly sliced carpaccio of veal fillet bonds with a terrine of artichokes and black truffle. Served as two courses, the chef’s signature sea bass in a salt crust with olive oil coulis is complemented by rocket, potatoes, and seasonal market vegetables. To finish, a warm Valrhona chocolate soufflé with caramelized champagne parfait and exotic fruit cocktail gratifies all the senses. A dessert alternative pays homage to Amrein’s culinary imagination—a mélange of curd cheese parfait with sesame crisp, grape and mustard ice cream, and a grape mille-feuille.

Bündnerfleisch

High in the alpine canton of Graubünden, in southeastern Switzerland, Bündnerfleisch was originally produced as a necessity, but today this air-dried beef is considered a delicacy. Pieces of lean beef thigh are seasoned with salt, spices, and alpine herbs and cured at a low temperature for five weeks. A ten- to 15-week drying period follows.

Bündnerfleisch is served thinly sliced—all it needs is a little freshly ground black pepper and maybe some crusty bread and a glass of red wine. It is also served with raclette and fondue, or used diced or in thin strips in Graubünden specialties, such as pizokel–a kind of dumpling–and stuffed veal.

The sky-high, open-air Sirocco restaurant at The Dome rewards the intrepid diner with stunning 360-degree views over Bangkok.

FRANCE

FINE DINING IN LYON

A trompe l’oeil of chef Paul Bocuse graces his restaurant in Collonges-au-Mont-d’Or, near Lyon.

At the culinary heart of France, Lyon is a melting pot of cultures and ingredients from all points of the compass.

Located where the Saône River from the north and the Rhône from the east meet and turn south, Lyon connects the traditions of animal-fat cookery from northern France with the olive-oil based cuisine of the Mediterranean, resulting in the best of both worlds. In addition, beef from the Massif Central to the west, butter from Normandy, cheeses from the Alps, and vegetables, seafood, and olive oil from the south provide Lyonnais chefs with an inexhaustible cornucopia of raw materials. This vibrant city, capital of the Rhône-Alpes region, also encompasses traditional French cooking and the lighter nouvelle cuisine introduced by chef Paul Bocuse, among others, half a century ago. Whereas the mères and grand-mères of the traditional bouchons (workers’ restaurants) originally established Lyon as France’s culinary capital, it was Bocuse and younger chefs, such as Nicolas le Bec, Christian Têtedoie, and Mathieu Viannay, who forged the city’s future. With some 60 Michelin stars awarded in the Rhône-Alpes region (19 for Lyon), a swelling list of chefs such as Jean-Christophe Ansanay-Alex, Philippe Gauvreau, Fabien Blanc, Guy Lassausaie, Davy Tissot, and Manuel Viron guarantee that Lyon will not be vacating the forefront of French cuisine anytime soon.

Bouchons

The bouchons of Lyon have long been famous for a type of hearty fare originally created for bus drivers and textile workers. So-named for the straw hung on tavern doors advertising food and drink for coachmen and straw for their horses, the bouchons were the truck stops of days gone by.

Founders such as Mère Brazier and Mère Fillioux, among dozens of other women, are still revered by the chefs, such as Paul Bocuse, who learned from them. Bouchon staples include andouillettes (veal and pork tripe sausage), bugnes (fried pork fat), pot-au-feu (meat and vegetable stew), quenelles (pike dumplings), and sabodet (pig’s head sausage).

Bouchons are all over town, though the best are on the Presqu’île between Place Bellecour and Place des Terreaux: Café des Fédérations, Chez Hugon, Garet, and Au Petit Bouchon “Chez Georges.”

FRANCE

PARISIAN HAUTE CUISINE

The original decor at the restaurant Le Meurice, inspired by the Salon de la Paix at Versailles, has been reinterpreted by designer Philippe Starck.

Take a tour of Michelin three-star restaurants in the world’s undisputed center of haute cuisine.

Tokyo may have more stars, New York and London more variety, but still at the pinnacle of high-end dining is Paris. At the top of this culinary mountain are those establishments that have earned three Michelin stars, of which there were just nine in the captial in 2008. These restaurants vary significantly in style, but are united by a passion to create the very finest dishes the city can offer. At the least formal of the nine, L’Astrance, chef Pascal Barbot creates a new menu each day from whatever is best in the market. Le Meurice near the Louvre has a beautiful belle-epoque dining room, while Ledoyen off the Champs-Élysées and Pré Catelan in the Bois de Boulogne have leafier settings. L’Arpège chef Alain Passard’s menu specializes in vegetables grown on his own organic farm southwest of Paris. Influential chef Pierre Gagnaire offers inventive variations on particular ingredients at his eponymous restaurant, and true masters of French cuisine Alain Ducasse and Guy Savoy strive for technical perfection. Of all the restaurants, L’Ambroisie in the beautiful Place des Vosges feels the most artisanal, its chef’s passion for food apparent in the care taken to bring out optimum flavor from his ingredients. Whichever you choose, you will experience personal service, the very finest produce France can offer, and the highest level of effort and attention to detail in creating the dishes that you order. Paris may be the world’s most romantic city; here the French show passion on your plate.

Three-star Menu

Examples of the kinds of dishes you can expect can be seen at Ledoyen. You might begin with delicate langoustines from Brittany, cooked perfectly and served in their shells with a frothy lemon oil to add just a little acidity. On the side you will find a contrast of langoustine meat deep-fried in a perfectly crisp coating. Perhaps follow with Parmesan-flavored pasta presented as a wall inside which ham is enclosed. The earthy flavor of morel mushrooms and their cooking juices are released when the pasta wall is broken down. A selection of five exquisite desserts includes a remarkable grapefruit confit topped with additional grapefruit, a delicate crisp, and cylinders of perfect grapefruit sorbet—a refreshing way to end the meal.

The Bloody Mary-named for Ernest Hemingway’s fourth wife—is said to have originated at The Bar Hemingway in the Hotel Ritz in Paris.

FRANCE

PROVENCE

Cafés, galleries, and boutiques line the narrow, cobbled streets of the picturesque medieval town of St.-Paul-de-Vence.

A bountiful harvest from land and sea makes Provençal cuisine one of the most flavorsome and distinctive in France.

Begin your sybaritic tour of Provence in Avignon, where market stalls inside the historic town walls are loaded with seasonal produce, including Cavaillon’s fragrant melons and sun-soaked tomatoes. A natural follow-up to a shopping round of artisanal soaps and olive-wood tools is a tomato-menu lunch at starred restaurant Christian Etienne, a setting steeped in history next to the 14th-century papal palace. The wine menu offers a superb selection of local wines from Châteauneuf-du-Pape. East of Avignon lies the diverse landscape of the Luberon, the popular market town of Apt, and Lourmarin’s cluster of gastronomic destinations—among them Edouard Loubet’s La Bastide de Capelongue and the inventive cuisine of Reine Samut at Auberge La Fennière. The La Provençale E80/A8 motorway cuts across stunning country all the way to Cannes, where the road turns north to Grasse, famous since the Renaissance for its fine perfumes. Venture east to Vence for a week in art-lovers’ heaven and dine amidst 20th-century art at La Colombe d’Or. Between Vence and St.-Paul-de-Vence, the arts have attracted art collectors and gastronomes for more than a century. Panoramas from the rampart walls and beyond to the sea redefine “breathtaking,” a reason to pause before the winding road leads south to Nice for a refined Provençal finale on the Côte d’Azur.

Not To Be Missed

■ Le Saint Paul restaurant, located in a 16th-century house on the ramparts of St.-Paul-de-Vence, is a luxurious honeymoon or anniversary hideaway, furnished with Provençal antiques. Enjoy a memorable dinner of chef Olivier Borloo’s refined cuisine.

■ In old Nice, the palace Hôtel Negresco’s dining room, the Chantecler, features tantalizing creations by chef Jean-Denis Rieubland.

■ When in Avignon, look in upscale épiceries or the Les Halles market for the unusual chocolate liqueur papaline, honey-sweetened with hints of oregano.

ITALY

MILAN

One of the world’s great cathedrals, the magnificent Gothic Duomo—boasting 135 spires—dominates Milan’s main square.

A hub of style, sophistication, and creativity, this most modern of Italian cities is also a bastion of traditional cooking.

It only takes a mouthful to understand why Milan personifies the Italian concept of the bella figura (“beautiful figure”) like no place else. The idea goes far beyond the chic couture and stylish slippers for which the city is famous. It also implies beauty, quality, and taste, all of which are abundant in Milan’s food. And it walks down a shiny runway at innovative chef Carlo Cracco’s eponymous restaurant Cracco, just a few paces from the iconic Duomo cathedral. Here a warm chocolate croquette bursts like a liquid bomb in your mouth, while the pile of cool, saline fish eggs squeezed beside it on the spoon does the same in miniature. If chocolate spells indulgence and caviar shouts extravagance, then a dessert that combines them both is surely luxury embodied. Down the street is a gourmet food shop called Peck, where cured hams are worth their weight in gold and the wine bottles in the cellar are older than some countries. Here opulence has been sold since 1883. But fortunately, the treats begin at just a few euros. As you lick a cone of luscious honey gelato and admire the store’s display cases, you can be confident that while not everyone is as well heeled as some of the clientele here, it is easy to be as well fed.

Signature Dishes

Milan’s food is rustic and refined, classical and contemporary. And both Cracco and Peck reflect that in different ways. A creamy pool of the classic risotto alla milanese gets its golden hue from strands of saffron and its characteristic richness from—of all things—bone marrow. Order some to go at Peck or sit down to a plate at Cracco.

Vitello alla milanese, or veal cooked in the style of Milan, is Italy’s answer to Wiener schnitzel. At the prepared food counters of Peck you can find it as a traditional thin cutlet of breaded meat fried in olive oil and served with a wedge of lemon. Cracco offers building-block-size cubes of crispy carne that come flanked by ingredients that range from tomato and zucchini to Savoy cabbage and pumpkin, depending on the season and the chef’s whim.

The hotel commands some of the best views in Venice.

ITALY

HOTEL CIPRIANI, VENICE

Guests arrive by private launch.

Romance and luxury come together in this famous hotel tucked away from the crowds on the island of Giudecca.

Exquisite Murano-glass chandeliers hang from a series of arches in the hotel’s Fortuny dining room, reminiscent of the dome of St. Mark’s. Semicircular love seats add to the sense of intimacy created by linen-covered tables haloed by candlelight. Soaring windows face across the lagoon towards the enchantment of Venice’s Grand Canal and St. Mark’s Square and over the hotel’s magnificent gardens. While contemplating the menu of authentic Venetian dishes, sip on a Cipriani cocktail, such as a Rossini (strawberries and Prosecco sparkling wine) or a Bellini (fresh peach juice and Prosecco). Rich, accessible, multilayered flavors are the tenets of chef Renato Piccolotto’s traditional Venetian cuisine. In true Italian tradition, pastas and pastries are made fresh every day. At dawn, a short boat ride to the bustling Rialto Fish Market brings back fresh fish—turbot, monkfish, or sea bass, depending on the catch of the day. Whenever the chef needs a fresh herb or vegetable, he simply steps outside to collect them from the hotel’s garden. Wine hails from the estate’s vineyard, which bears the Casanova Salso label. Appetizers entice with homemade ravioli filled with sea bass and wild fennel, and laced with guazzetto (broth). The signature taglierini verdi finds fresh thin green noodles with ham au gratin. The memory of the delectable bittersweet chocolate ice cream lingers on after leaving.

Beef Carpaccio

Legend has it that Giuseppe Cipriani—founder of Harry’s Bar and Hotel Cipriani—invented beef carpaccio around 1950. When a countess could only eat raw meat, Cipriani conceived a plate of thinly sliced raw beef served with mustard. He named the dish carpaccio after the late-15th/early-16th century Venetian painter, Vittore Carpaccio, as the reddish and yellow hues of the dish reflect the dominant colors in the painter’s work.

Variations abound, but today’s carpaccio requires paper-thin slices of prime, low-fat beef arranged on top of arugula (rocket), watercress, or endive and drizzled with a cold vinaigrette of olive oil and lemon juice. A hint of Parmesan cheese joins capers or onions as a topping.

Hotel Cipriani’s classic carpaccio blends lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, consommé, mayonnaise, mustard, and a few drops of Tabasco sauce in its dressing. A few artichoke slices, fine shavings of Parmesan cheese, and fresh parsley sprigs round out the garnish.

UNITED KINGDOM

THE GLORIOUS TWELFTH

Head chef at Harrods department store, Guiseppe Silvestri, receives the first grouse of the season.

Halfway through the British summer, gourmets celebrate the start of the grouse-shooting season.

August 12 is the busiest day in the U.K.’s gamebird calendar. The 1773 Game Act named the date as the opening of the season for red grouse and ptarmigan, and it became known as the Glorious Twelfth. The red grouse, a plump, medium-size bird, is found only in the U.K. and Ireland, where it breeds on heather moors, particularly in Scotland and the north of England. The birds are left to raise their chicks undisturbed every spring, and by the beginning of August the youngsters are fully grown. The day’s shoot typically opens with a hearty English breakfast. Those shooting will establish themselves in butts (stone shelters) arranged across the moor before the beaters begin startling any grouse in the heather, making them fly toward the guns. Grouse fly fast and low, providing a challenging target, and gundogs retrieve any grouse that have been hit. Large estates dispatch most of the shot grouse all over the country to be sold to exclusive restaurants and butchers. The classic way of preparing grouse is by roasting, allowing you to relish its tangy flavor. Traditionally, it is served with game chips (wafer-thin slices of potato that have been fried until crisp and golden), game sauce (flavored with red-currant jelly and port), bread sauce, and bread crumbs or slices, which are toasted and fried in the fats (dripping) from the roasting pan.

All About Grouse

■ Shot birds are counted and sold in “braces” (pairs). The meat is low in fat, and because grouse cannot be reared in captivity, it is free of artificial additives. The birds will have fed almost entirely on young heather—up to 2 oz (50 g) a day.

■ Traditionally, grouse is “hung” before being plucked and cooked. The birds are suspended by the neck in a cool place, where they used to be left for five days or longer to develop their gamy flavor. Nowadays, they are more likely to be hung for three days, and some people prefer to cook them as fresh as possible off the moor.

■ London’s oldest restaurant, Rules in Covent Garden, has its own shooting estate in Teesdale and serves grouse every year from the start of the season.

UNITED KINGDOM

LIVE LIKE A LORD

At Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons the English country house remains unrivaled for rural luxury living.

Step into a refined, genteel past with a visit to one of England’s country house hotels.

Tucked between Oxfordshire’s rolling hills since Norman times, the manor house that makes up Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, with its ancient walled garden, 17th-century pond and orchards, and acres of herb and organic planting, is the epitome of English country luxury. A trip to an English manor house hotel such as this can make you feel like you are living in the pages of a Nancy Mitford novel. In each individually designed, elegant bedroom at Le Manoir, a decanter of fine Madeira awaits, ready for sipping as a nightcap. Alongside the luxurious surroundings, of course, Le Manoir is all about fine food. From the moment you wake up in the morning to the time you slip beneath the covers at night, you will be in foodie heaven—and more than encouraged to indulge in a traditional English breakfast, cream teas in the lounge, the champagne bar, and, to cap it all, one of England’s finest restaurants. Awarded two highly prized Michelin stars, Raymond Blanc’s cooking is intimate, rich, and elegant; look out for his sophisticated treatments of luxurious ingredients and the perfectly fresh produce from Le Manoir’s own beautifully maintained gardens, through which guests are invited to wander (and wonder at the diversity—there are 70 different herbs). Stay here for a couple of nights, and you will leave feeling to the manor born.

Country-house Favorites

Country house hotels with attached restaurants are a wonderful way to sample upper-crust English lifestyle.

■ At the Jacobean Lewtrenchard Manor in Devon you can sleep in the bed that used to belong to Charles I’s queen, Henrietta Maria. The manor’s excellent restaurant also serves food fit for royalty.

■ A hostelry has stood on the site of The George Hotel in Stamford, Lincolnshire, for more than 900 years. Today, two gourmet restaurants, ancient walled gardens, inglenook fireplaces to snuggle in front of, and four-poster beds make staying here a luxurious way to experience British history.

SPAIN

ELBULLI

The presentation at elBulli is as much a part of the experience as sampling the food itself, as this Icy Truffle of Carrot and Passion Fruit demonstrates.

A small seaside town on Spain’s Costa Brava is the unexpected home of one of the world’s most innovative chefs.

Named the best restaurant in the world by Restaurant magazine in 2006, chef Ferran Adrià’s elBulli is one of a kind. The cooking at elBulli has been described as “a language through which all the following properties may be expressed: harmony, creativity, happiness, beauty, poetry, complexity, magic, humor, provocation, and culture.” Whether rabbit brains with oysters or begonia flower soup with cashew rocks, amaranth, and Australian finger limes sound like your cup of tea or not, Adrià’s imagination routinely keeps diners on the edge of their seats through some three dozen exquisite miniature creations and half a dozen wine selections over five- or six-hour dinners. Beginning with culinary foams and working through even lighter textures, such as frothy “air of carrot” or freeze-fried eggs, Adrià’s laboratory will be developing new tastes, textures, temperatures, and techniques by the next season. Far from its humble beginnings in the early 1960s—the name derives from the original owner’s toy bulldogs—elBulli today receives up to one million reservation requests a year and has been described as “the most imaginative generator of haute cuisine on the planet.”

Ferran Adrià

Originally from the working-class Barcelona suburb of L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Ferran Adrià speaks with a blue-collar accent that sounds like Andalusian Catalan. After starting out as dishwasher in a French restaurant, Adrià cooked for an admiral while doing national service in the Spanish navy. During this time he met chef Fermi Puig, now director of Barcelona’s Drolma restaurant.

In 1983, Puig convinced Adrià to work as an assistant at elBulli during his summer break, and the following year, at the age of 22, Adrià joined elBulli as a line chef. Eighteen months later, he was head chef.

Adrià began his experiments in molecular gastronomy in the late 1980s. In 1990, the Michelin Guide awarded elBulli two stars, and in 1997 the restaurant was awarded three.

MAURITIUS

TROPICAL GOURMET DINING

A snaking gangplank through mangrove trees brings you to the floating tropical paradise of Le Barachois restaurant.

Enjoy dining in luxury with menus drawn from the cuisines of three continents on one of the world’s most beautiful islands.

You know that the local dining scene must be hot when French chef, Alain Ducasse, opens a signature restaurant, and such is the case on Mauritius, a volcanic island in the southern Indian Ocean that has long been a haunt of the rich and famous and is now an increasingly tasty dining destination. Ducasse’s Spoon des Iles restaurant at the Le Saint Géran resort on the northeast coast is a feast for eyes and palate. The open kitchen is crafted from black Zimbabwean granite, the floor made with paving stones from a 17th-century French church. The menu champions local produce cooked with French style—dishes like dorado tuna wrapped in banana leaf, wood-roasted rack of lamb, and creamy guacamole lime soup. Not to be outdone, Le Touessrok, a resort on the east coast, hired London-based chef Vineet Bhatia to create the Safran restaurant. Signature dishes include fresh shrimp with crabmeat risotto and a thoroughly modern version of chicken masala. While Spoon and Safran raised the bar for local foodies, they were not the first gourmet oases on the island. La Flore Mauricienne in downtown Port Louis (the island’s capital) opened its doors in 1848 and is universally considered the oldest of all Indian Ocean restaurants. The menu, which ranges from Indian dishes such as roti and curry to French standards such as roast lamb, changes daily.

Mauritian cuisine

Mauritius was uninhabited until the 16th century, yet subsequent immigration—by Indians and Chinese, British and French, Africans, and Arabs—has spawned a polyglot population that is reflected in the island’s eclectic cuisine. While retaining their own unique food cultures, all these groups have borrowed from one another over the years to develop Creole dishes that are unique to the island. In addition to local versions of Indian favorites like biryani rice and curries, inhabitants also relish mango kutcha (stir-fried with ginger, garlic, and chilies), fried faratas bread (used to scoop up curry), camarons au palmiste (grilled shrimp with palm hearts), and vindaye (marinated fish or octopus stir-fried with onion, chilies, cloves, and turmeric).