Slovenia's Ana Ros is best female chef
IT'S not just America's new First Lady Melania Trump who is putting Slovenia on the map.
In the culinary world, there's another Slovenian woman who is fast gaining worldwide recognition, this time for being a gastronomic virtuoso in the kitchen.
The seventh recipient of the World's Best Female Chef award is Ana Ros of Hisa Franko restaurant in Kobarid, Slovenia.
Ros's rise to the top as a chef of haute – and unexpected – gastronomy is all the more remarkable as she is completely self-taught, and her career in food accidental.
After meeting her husband Valter, Ros – who is also a former ski champion – turned down an offer to work as a diplomat in Brussels, choosing instead to stay in Slovenia and help run his family's restaurant.
To master the craft, Ros travelled and dined at other restaurants where she decrypted recipes and sought inspiration to create her own signature, culinary philosophy – one that hinges on local products like homemade butter, Tolminc cheese, lamb, and the influences of neighbouring Italy, Hungary, Austria and Croatia.
Through trial and error, Ros eventually developed her own gastronomic identity, one that recently caught the attention of the food world via the popular Netflix series Chef 's Table in an episode that aired last year.
“One of the things that I've always been most fascinated about by Ana's cooking is that she has this particular genius with the unexpected,” says Chef 's Table narrator and food critic Alexander Lobrano.
As an example, he describes one of her most intriguing dishes as a “broken haiku”.
“When you read d squid, sweetbreads, walnuts a nd Tolminc cheese, you can't imaginei what these flavours aree going to taste like when I put it in my mouth,” Lobrano says.
“But then you'ree in the midst of eating the said thi ing and suddenly you're surprised bby how spectacular the food is.”
Hisa Franko is locatedl in Kobarid's Soca Va lley, just three kilometres ffrom the Italian border, an area best known for ha aving been the site of th he 1917 Battle of Caporetto documented in Ernest Hemingway's nov vel, A Farewell to Arm ms.
While Ros may never have becom me a high-ranking dip plomat in Brussels, she is widely described as a culi inary ambassador for her native Slovenia.
“The award came as a surprisee to me,” said Ros.
“It is a big respo onsibility to accept t his award, especially as a self-taught cook, bbut the recognition pprovides an opportu unity for people to reas sess Slovenia as an int teresting gastronomic desti ination.”
Past recipients ofo the award include Dominiqu ue Crenn, Helene Darroze, HHelena Rizzo, Elena Arzak, Nadi ia Santini and Anne-Sophie Pic.
Ros will accept her award at the World's 50 Best Re estaurants awards on April 5 in Melbourne, Australia. – AFP RRelaxnews