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2018 was particularly good to me from a culinary perspective. I made a long-overdue return to Europe and hit a few places I had been meaning to visit, and I also managed to scratch a few itches in Japan. I'm grateful to all the chefs who, no doubt, have spent countless hours creating amazing dishes for us to enjoy.
As in previous years, this is simply listed by chronological order. These were the dishes which brought out the strongest emotional response from me.
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Ever since I first met Chef Ricardo Chaneton, I've always been curious about Mirazur. And as the restaurant continued its meteoric rise up The World's 50 Best Restaurants, that curiosity got stronger. Of course nobody I know believes that Restaurant ABC is actually the #8 restaurant in the world... but the fact that a restaurant is popular enough to get the votes required to be among the top means that they are probably doing something right.
So when it came time to plan the French leg of our trip, I asked Ricardo to help book me a table at Mirazur. I was going to visit my friends who live in the south of France, and I would take them out to a nice dinner. They picked Hello Kitty and I up in Nice - with our big suitcases in tow - and drove us to the restaurant situated just over 100m from the border with Italy.
The four of us arrived very early before the restaurant even opened, and we were invited inside to wait while they finished prepping. However, I experienced a few minutes of panic when I was informed that they couldn't find our reservation... It seemed just a little embarrasing to have told your friends that you're taking them to dinner, come all this way, and then be told by the restaurant they have no idea who you are...
Fortunately it was all a misunderstanding, and they did have a table reserved for us. Meanwhile we were offered a glass of Champagne while we waited for Chef Mauro Colagreco to come greet us. I chose to start with Billecart-Salmon Brut Rosé as it always goes down very well.
Mauro came to give us a tour of the restaurant's gardens, which are split into two parts. First we got a look at the citrus trees and herbs that are grown right next to and below the restaurant, including a very tall avocado tree which made my friends very jealous. There are, of course, the lemons that Menton is famous for...
We were then led to the larger part of the gardens, with most of the vegetables along with the chickens as well as the beehives. Mauro spoke to us about creating biodiversity through permaculture, and it's taken them 4 years to get to the stage they're at.
I loved seeing everything that they were working on, and was happy to meet Mauro's young son. My sole regret was not asking Mauro for permission to fly my drone over the gardens...
