Ate at Hisa Franko Restaurant, Kobarid, Slovenia
She “abandoned” her kids to eat at one of the most acclaimed restaurants in the world! You would too! If you could find it! It’s in the alpine corner of the Soca Valley! In Slovenia! The restaurant is called Hisa Franko!
It’s closed for two months a year! The chef is Ana Ros! She’s been on Netflix’s Chef’s Table!
She was named World’s Best Female Chef 2017!
Those are all the reasons Lynn travelled with her restaurateur husband, Beppe (they left the kids safe in Italy with Lynn’s in-laws), a few miles across the border to Slovenia to Ana’s restaurant just to eat her remarkable food. The menu is an eclectic and original revision of Slovenian cuisine, which is a combination of local, Italian and Austrian influences. You have to book Hisa Franko (“Frank’s House”) six months in advance. Lynn squeezed in a December trip as the place is closed from mid-January to end March. The inn also has rooms to let.
“It was the most incredible 20 hours of my life, as their entire family made us feel so much at home at Hisa Franko,” Lynn said.
“Food brings people together like nothing else. We travelled with our chef friends as we always find a way to get together through a food journey,” she added. “I’m not a big fan of dairy, but here, the crystallised aged Tolmin cheese made from the milk of local cows is out of this world! Aged in her cheese cellar in optimal conditions, it’s a perfect marriage with the local honey. And the trout sourced from the river behind her house is so sweet!”
Ana, named World’s Best Female Chef 2017 by The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, has been a great inspiration to the industry. “She is a superwoman,” Lynn confirms. Travel Tips: “Go with an open mind, taste and eat everything. Bring lots of local food items as gifts; they love our fermented items like belacan, cincaluk and pickles. Also chicken rice paste and laksa paste never go wrong! I even brought my favourite brand of rice for them to cook with.” www.hisafranko.com/en/