LJUBLJANA, SLOVENIA
For a country of only 20,000 square kilometres (Australia is almost 7.7 million square kilometres), Slovenia packs a gastronomic punch. In the two years since it joined the Michelin Guide, seven of the Slavic nation’s eateries have earned stars. The capital, Ljubljana, is a city built around a 900-year-old castle; architect Jože Plečnik’s Art Nouveau buildings and bridges define the city’s aesthetic, while farmer-run stalls at food markets give its residents access to fresh local produce.
How’s the local fare? With its direct connection to foraged and farm produce – apples, mushrooms, wild strawberries, cabbage and turnips, honey from Carniolan bees and salt harvested from Adriatic pans – Slovenia was doing locavorism long before it was fashionable.
Tell me about the dining scene.
Ljubljana is one of the smallest capitals in Europe and Atelje (restavracijaatelje.com) is its only Michelin-starred restaurant. The youngest chef in the country to have helmed a starred venue, Jorg Zupan’s unpretentious creativity is mostly unhampered by the pressures of being in the guide. “It’s an honour but everyone who has a star, deep down inside, is a bit worried about losing it,” he says. “It’s as much a recognition as it is a little bit of a burden. Before, we did our thing and we didn’t know the inspectors were present. But now that we have a star, we have to keep it.”
That shouldn’t be a problem...
Not with 80 per cent of the produce used in Atelje’s kitchen grown in the garden. Dishes such as Adriatic shrimp with hermelika (a local herb), green strawberries and smoked buttermilk, cabbage with spring onions, mushrooms, XO sauce and lacto-fermented cabbage sauce or stingray with salad greens and vin jaune sauce prove Zupan and his team are on the cutting edge. “We try not to follow any rules. We do a lot of fermenting, pickling and experimentation.”