The dish “Crepe of fermented lentils (dosa), goat cheese, salted yogurt, curry leaves and wild watercress” at Hisa Franko restaurant in Kobarid, Slovenia, on May 12, 2023 (AFP/Jure Makovec)
Propelled into the limelight by an iconoclastic chef, Slovenian cuisine has made a place for itself in world gastronomy in just a few years by combining a locavore approach and avant-gardism.
“Like a painter sees colors, I sometimes say a cook must visualize flavors and I’ve always loved combinations that explode in the mouth,” says starred star Ana Ros, 50, volubly.
Self-taught, she transformed in 20 years a modest family inn lost in the luxuriant valley of Soca, on the border of Italy, into a point of passage for gourmet globetrotters.
However, nothing predestined her to the kitchen.
Slovenian chef Ana Ros, who runs the two-star Michelin restaurant Hisa Franko, poses in Kobarid on May 12, 2023 (AFP/Jure Makovec)
After having integrated in her youth the national ski team of Yugoslavia, of which Slovenia was a part before independence in 1991, this polyglot was preparing for a career as a diplomat.
But “his heart” decided otherwise. Her husband at the time, sommelier Valter Kramer, took over her parents’ business in 2002 and Ana Ros found herself back in the kitchen overnight.
“I started from nothing, I cooked to survive,” she says. And then, little by little, she got caught up in the game, surprising customers with her reckless choices.
“My dishes reflect my character tinged with a grain of madness and a remnant of childhood”, she describes.
– Tattooed stars –
Her plates “striking people’s minds”, as she says, recalling one of her first successful recipes, a bass in its lemon-basil mousse accompanied by coffee pasta.
A two-star Michelin sign at the entrance to the Hisa Franko restaurant in Kobarid, Slovenia, on May 12, 2023 (AFP/Jure Makovec)
Years of trial and error, hard work, deciphering recipes and encounters, and then recognition, consecrated by a stint in 2016 in the Netflix culinary series “Chef’s table”.
New Zealanders, Japanese, Americans… the tourists began to flock and so did the rewards.
The influential “50 Best” ranking soon after elected her “best chef in the world”. His restaurant is ranked 32nd in the just published 2023 edition.
Above all, in 2021, she won the first two Michelin stars in her small country. And even if fortune turns, she will always have them inscribed in indelible ink on her fingers, which feature discreet tattoos of the red symbol.
Staff at the Hisa Franko restaurant prepare Slovenian dishes in Kobarid, Slovenia, on May 12, 2023 (AFP/Jure Makovec)
An honor still reserved for very few women. Within the culinary elite, “we are like an exotic animal, even if the picture changes with the younger generations”, she breathes.
In her pink crepit building under the wisteria, “Hisa Franko”, Ana Ros oversees a team of around forty employees of some 20 nationalities, who concoct a menu at 255 euros.
She will soon expand her empire with the opening of a more affordable bistro in the capital Ljubljana, where she already runs a pastry shop.
– Latin, Slavic and Germanic crucible –
In its wake have engulfed dozens of visionary addresses bringing up to date an old know-how. The Michelin guide recommends 58.
Tomaz Kavcic, who runs the Michelin star restaurant Gostilna pri Lojzetu, poses in his restaurant in Zemono, Slovenia, on May 12, 2023 (AFP/Jure Makovec)
This success, the nation of two million inhabitants owes in large part to its location, between mountains, lakes, forests and the Adriatic Sea offering an incredible food diversity. A melting pot of Latin, Slavic and Germanic influences, Slovenia can be crossed in three hours by car.
Combined with an avant-garde approach following the rhythm of the seasons, trout, berries and local mushrooms are served here in creative compositions.
“People have always done their shopping in the surrounding nature,” notes Lior Kochavy, who co-founded an open-air cooking festival in the streets of Ljubljana.
A “zero kilometer” tradition, from the field to the table, which is not very difficult to respect: “You just have to go out on the terrace and the menu writes itself”, assures another recognized chef, Tomaz Kavcic.
A landscape of farmhouses seen from Castle Zemono in the Vipava Valley, Slovenia, on May 12, 2023 (AFP/Jure Makovec)
The house where he installs his guests offers a bird’s eye view of the vineyards and farms that produce the meat, fruits, vegetables, cheese and endemic herbs supplying the establishment, named “Gostilna pri Lojzetu”.
“We evolve with the local farmers and farmers, we learn alongside them – it’s like a big family”, confirms Ana Ros.
The other side of the coin, with this move upmarket, prices are skyrocketing in this formerly communist land, now less accessible to backpackers.
© 2023 AFP
Did you like this article ? Share it with your friends with the buttons below.
