'Utterly delicious': top chefs on the best thing they ate in 2019

Soupe au pistou at Le Bistrot du Paradou, France

Rick Stein, chef and food writer

My friend John Illsley, who was the bass guitarist in Dire Straits, recommended that we go to Le Bistrot du Paradou. The first thing I liked was that there was no choice on the menu: just one starter, one main course, one pud, and cheese. The menu changed every day. No choice, a very lovely part of France, and two dishes that I just love: soupe au pistou and then chicken cooked on a rotisserie – and then I think it was lemon tart. Soupe au pistou is one of my favourite soups in the world. The first time I ever tasted basil was not in Italy but in France, in soup au pistou. This arrived in a big tureen, and gosh, was it good. It was in September, so all the ingredients were in season: courgettes, tomatoes, green beans, peas, basil, flageolets – and loads of garlic. The thing about food for me is it’s really an ancillary to great conversation and great atmosphere; and that restaurant was buzzing, it was very nice to see John, and there was local rosé to drink. It all reinforced my belief that good food in restaurants is about the craic; it’s sort of an art form that, when it works, has the effect of so cheering you up it takes you out of the everyday minute details and performs an artistic magic on you. But the soupe au pistou was just the best thing I’ve eaten for so long.

Alaskan king crab with salted duck-egg sauce at Dynasty Seafood Restaurant, Vancouver

Nisha Katona, founder and CEO, Mowgli Street Food

Over the summer I went to Vancouver, where there is an incredible Asian food scene. At the Dynasty Seafood Restaurant, which is the place for Chinese families in Vancouver to gather, I had deep-fried Alaskan king crab with salted duck-egg sauce. Salted duck-egg is kind of like the parmesan of the Far East; it’s a phenomenal thing. They brine the eggs, steam them, then mash the yolks with butter, sugar, salt and rice wine, and so there’s this sweet, salty, quite granular coating that makes you actually want to suck the crab shells more than eat the flesh. It really hurts me that salted duck-egg sauce hasn’t made an impact in London, though I think its time is coming. We need to get behind salted duck-eggs. That sweet umami is the ultimate flavour hit.

Steamed fresh flowery crab with aged Shaoxing wine, fragrant chicken oil and flat rice noodles at the Chairman, Hong Kong

Tomos Parry, chef-founder, Brat, London

At Brat, we cook whole fish and crabs, so when we went to Hong Kong I was interested to see how they did it. This dish is a flower crab cooked in Shaoxing wine, it has chicken oil through it and comes with thick steamed noodles. You eat the crab and it creates its own sauce for the noodles. Flower crabs don’t really have the depth of flavour of the head meat of British native crabs; it’s much sweeter and more delicate, but it worked. The balance was amazing. We also had a steamed grouper head with fermented chilli and Chinese pickled olives. It was kind of sticky and umami and spicy – these really complex flavours were so different to anything I’d tried before. I’d never been to Asia before, so it was quite an eye-opener. The Chairman is in the World’s 50 Best list, but it’s not fussy, it looks like a kind of restaurant you’re quite familiar with. They have a lazy susan on the table. I grew up with pretty rubbish food on lazy susans, but here the sharing element all made sense. It was an exciting place to eat.

Smoked eel, apple, caviar and white chocolate at the Angel, Hetton, Yorkshire

Gareth Ward , chef-owner, Ynyshir, south Wales

The Angel is a beautiful old pub in a village in west Yorkshire that’s been taken over by Michael Wignall, who was previously at the Latymer and Gidleigh Park. I knew it would be good but I wasn’t expecting it to be so incredible. He’s quite complicated in the way he cooks, but he makes it all work. The smoked eel and white chocolate was a standout, along with a strawberries, sweet pea and olive oil cake for dessert. They’ve just opened, so it’s early days, but the future is going to be huge for them.

Lunch at Sweetings, London

Melanie Arnold, co-owner, Rochelle Canteen, London

I finally got to Sweetings. I’d been meaning to go for years but when I’d been before they were full and I could never sit down. It was a gorgeous sunny day, and I tripped down the street thinking “ooh, this is going to be fun.” And it was just lovely. Lovely decor, shared tables, and nice old wait staff in waistcoats. I started with a black velvet in a tankard, standing at the bar. First we were given a little plate of pre-buttered sliced bread, which was quite a surprise. Then I had potted shrimps, then smoked haddock with poached egg. The service was great, and the hum all around. It’s quite City, quite blokey, and they’re all tucking in like crazy. There’s a real vim and vigour about it. And, I don’t want to be rude, the food was better than I thought it was going to be. I’d thought the food wasn’t really what you go for, but I really enjoyed it. It’s not modern, but you get why City men love it. The haddock and egg was perfect. A nice bit of frozen peas on the side – I love frozen peas. Then we had sticky toffee pudding and custard, and then Welsh rarebit with a bit of poire William. We rolled out after a good two and a half, three hours. It was one of those early midweek, naughty lunches, when you’re in high spirits right from the off. It felt like a real treat.

Tuna sandwich at Taberna Muguruza Ardoak, Pasaia, Spain

Fozia Ismail , food anthropologist and cook, Arawelo Eats, Bristol

For our 10th wedding anniversary we went to San Sebastián, which is lovely and has amazing food. But we also did a walk of about eight miles to a fishing village called Pasaia. It’s a beautiful coastal walk, but quite hard going – up and down – and when we got there we found this dive bar, like a workers’ bar, full of old men drinking lots of coffee and smoking loads. They told us to take a ferry to the posher bit of the village. But we thought we’d just stay there because they had lovely wine, and we had the nicest tuna sandwich. It was on ciabatta-like bread; really good quality tinned tuna with a mild pickled chilli and a green olive. So simple, so honest, so delicious. And it cost €2. We went back a couple of days later for another and the woman at the bar was lovely, but also like: “What are you doing? This is not a tourist place? What’s wrong with you?” It was hilarious, and still brilliant.

Vegetable and pork dumplings at One Kueh at a Time, Singapore

Mauro Colagreco, chef-owner, Mirazur, France

I was in Singapore in June for the World’s 50 Best awards [at which Mirazur was voted the world’s best restaurant]. The chef Julien Royer, of Odette in Singapore, recommended I go to One Kueh at a Time, and I’m very glad I did. It’s a casual, family-run place that specialises in dumplings. I had two different fillings: one was beetroot and burnt cabbage, which was so nice; the other was pork and cabbage. I was totally impressed by the dumpling itself and by the texture of the filling.

Organic spring onions from Laos

Bounsou “King” Senathit, chef-owner, CookDaily, London

Whenever my mum goes to Laos, she brings back amazing produce. In October, she came back with some very long, thin spring onions from the weekly organic market in the capital Vientiane – an incredible place, with loads of greens that I’ve never seen. I used the whole, unchopped spring onions, tail and all, to make a Korean pancake, or pajeon. I topped it off with some other produce my mum had brought back, including cherry tomatoes and some really fragrant holy basil, and served it with a dipping sauce of sesame oil, soy sauce, fresh ginger and chilli. It was the best pancake I’ve ever had because of those amazing spring onions.

Eggs at Niddo, Mexico City

Ruth Rogers, chef-owner, the River Café, London

I lived in Mexico for four months this year, and I love the way Mexicans eat: they have a big breakfast and a late lunch and not very much in the evening. For breakfast, I would walk to a wonderful, really exceptional cafe called Niddo not far from my house, run by a woman called Karen Drijanski. Every day I would have eggs with tortillas and a rich tomato sauce with chilli, or Mexicanos, or rancheros. If friends were visiting for the first time I’d recommend they have chilaquiles – corn tortillas with either green or red sauce. Having that with really good coffee would start the day.

Summer squash and cod at SingleThread Farm Restaurant, California

Clare Smyth, chef-owner, Core, London

I eat a lot of amazing food all over the world, so it’s very rare to actually be stopped by something. But at SingleThread I was, by the summer squash with black cod – it was outstanding. Some of the squash was cooked very lightly in salted water; the fish was cooked on a little Japanese barbecue and had a light smoke to it; and tama miso, which is an egg-yolk miso sauce, bound it all in richness. There was raw squash and blossoms too, so it was also very pure. Ridiculously good. The next day I was walking in the gardens with Kyle Connaughton, the chef and owner of SingleThread, and he said: “You know, these squashes are in my favourite dish at the moment”, so he knew that the produce was just absolutely at its peak.

Dénia prawns at Mar do Inferno, Cascais, Portugal

Robin Gill , chef-owner, the Dairy and Darby’s, both London

On a trip to Lisbon in March, I had Dénia prawns at a traditional restaurant in Cascais, half an hour west of the city. They prepare these monstrous red prawns very simply, just grilled over fire with a decent pinch of salt and some olive oil, and they were outrageously good. You suck the juices out of the heads and that intense flavour was like a freight train hitting me in the face. My wife and my friend Dan’s wife wouldn’t eat the heads, so and Dan and I managed to get double for our money. We had the prawns with some vinho verde, the super-light Portuguese wine – breakfast wine, I was calling it. When I went to Lisbon again in September, I went back to the restaurant twice, so I’ve had them three times this year. That’s how good they are.

Post-flight pickles at Baoshuan, New Delhi

Andrew Wong, chef-owner, A Wong and Kym’s, both London

Before flying to New Delhi, where I’m a mentor at Baoshuan, I gave the chef a brief: “Make me some pickles.” And when I arrived after a nine-hour flight, Chef Sun put out this array of pickles: all cold dishes, Chinese dishes; very traditional, but each one very different. Having been on a long flight, it was great to eat something healthy but so delicious. One was a lightly poached edamame bean with a spicy peanut-sesame dressing. Another was a traditional pickled chilli and black-bean cucumber. And he did this okra dish with a light dressing – just a little bit of vinegar, Sichuan pepper and sugar – but a weird texture. Traditionally, in most cuisines, they blanch okra in oil to stop you getting the slime, but Chef Sun explained that where he’s from in China they blanch it in water because they want the slime. And then there were French beans that he had blanched in a star anise stock; it still looked like a simple raw bean, but so much flavour had infused into it. Utterly delicious. Chef Sun is from northern China but he’s been working in India for two years and he’s learned to use his roots, but pump everything with more umami because the Indian palate requires constant stimulation.

Roti prata at Mr & Mrs Mohgan’s Super Crispy Roti Prata, Singapore

Elizabeth Haigh, chef-founder, Kaizen House pop-ups

We went to Singapore for a research trip combined with a family holiday and loads of people recommended Mr & Mrs Mohgan’s. We were staying next door, so we went for breakfast pretty much every morning. It’s a tiny hawker stall that’s open from early until they sell out, normally about 9.30am. There’s a lady who writes every order by hand, then screams out the number when it’s ready. The roti came with an amazingly rich mutton curry dish, perfect for waking you up, especially in that humidity. But the roti itself was the star of the show: it was so crispy and buttery and flaky. I loved just watching them making roti after roti in the background. The entire meal cost about £2.30. You see people from all walks of life there, tourists and locals.

Picanha with chimichurri

Sheila Dillon, presenter, BBC Radio 4’s The Food Programme

For a barbecue programme, we had on the three best barbecuers in Britain: DJ BBQ (Christian Stevenson), Samantha Evans from Hang Fire Southern Kitchen, and Genevieve Taylor who’s written various books on barbecue. I’ve always been sceptical about barbecues but this was one of the most magnificent feasts of my life. One of the two dishes that Sam cooked was a Brazilian cut of beef called picanha; we call it rump cover in this country but we don’t really much eat it as a steak. It was a big piece of beef, much thicker than a steak – about two or three inches thick – from a Hereford that had been dry-aged for 28 days. She barbecued it as whole chunk of meat, then sliced it and gave it a final two or three minutes on the barbecue, and served it with a divine chimichurri sauce. That’s a very simple thing, but it was utterly, completely wonderful.

Fried langoustine at Trattoria al Gatto Nero, Venice

Angela Hartnett, chef-owner, Cafe Murano, London

I’d been to Gatto Nero a few times before, but this was a new thing I’d tried. It was a langoustine, wrapped in lardo and then I think it was fried in a light batter, but it may have just been in flour. It was just so delicious. I was with my husband and another chef, and we all went: “Oh my God, isn’t that amazing.” When you taste something and you want another plate right away, you know they’re onto something good.

Chicken millefeuille at Somni, Los Angeles

David Gelb, creator, Chef’s Table

Somni is a terrific restaurant by chef Aitor Zabala in collaboration with José Andrés. They do a tasting menu that is innovative but it doesn’t sacrifice that for yumminess. Sometimes when you go for a tasting menu, lots of dishes are more interesting than delicious. Millefeuille is normally a dessert; in this case he makes it out of chicken. They do a chicken confit and then they roast the skin in a panini press. They layer this chicken skin and inside is chicken liver, Iberico ham, roasted onion puree, bacon Chantilly, rosemary powder and rosemary flowers. And it’s just awesome. As I was crunching through the layers of chicken skin I was getting it on my hands, because some of the filling was coming out a little bit, and I see Aitor across the room and he looks at me and smiles and does a kind of “yeah, you can lick your fingers” gesture. It was a pure, pleasurable moment of eating with your hands.

Celeriac, mushrooms and egg yolk, Fitzroy, Fowey, Cornwall

Blanche Vaughan, cook and food writer

My friends took me here. Fowey is a centuries-old harbour town and the restaurant is in an old bank. We ordered a bunch of dishes. The first two were so standout – there was lamb sweetbreads with crown prince pumpkin and crisp sage, and pollock croquettes with aioli – I thought I had eaten the best things I would all night. But then we had a dish of braised celeriac with mushrooms and an egg yolk. The celeriac was sliced very thinly like handkerchiefpasta – fazzoletti. It had the same texture as freshly cooked pasta too, a silkiness with a really subtle bite. The celeriac was infused with mushroom flavour and it turns out they had braised the celeriac in a mushroom broth. The mushrooms had been foraged in a secret spot near Bodmin. When the egg yolk was stirred into the dish, it became this wonderful creamy emulsion.

Seadas in Oristano, Sardinia

Florence Knight, chef and food writer, London

Seadas are my “I’m on holiday food”, they remind me of sunshine. They are Sardinian pastries filled with young pecorino (aged to go a little acidic) and lemon zest, smothered in honey and often served on a piece of orange. They look a bit like those sweets, flying saucers. I first went to Sardinia because of Luca, who I know through Polpetto[where Knight was head chef]. I hired him as a chef when he spoke barely any English but I could tell his passion for food. When you cut seadas, pecorino oozes out. Pecorino is a Sardinian cheese and in Luca’s town, Oristano, men try and sell you pecorino on the beach. They don’t have a licence so they try and get you to go back to their vans where they have loads of vacuum-packed cheeses and sausages in the boot. We always come home with a massive suitcase.

Creme brulee at the Folkestone Wine Company, Kent

Neil Borthwick, head chef, the French House, London

Nowadays, nine out of 10 chefs cook creme brulee in a bain-marie in the oven with milk, whole eggs and what have you. But traditionally it’s just cream, egg yolks and sugar cooked on the stove. It’s a lot harder to do, but creme brulee should be made like this, it should be decadent. David Hart, the chef at the Folkestone Wine Company does it this way. I do too but I have to say there is something he does that makes them so nice and light. His had a beautifully caramelised-crunchy top and a lovely, rich custard underneath. Everyone around the table agreed it was just fantastic. It didn’t last long, I don’t think it will be taken off the menu any time soon.

Roasted monkfish with crispy garlic, Casa Cámara, San Sebastián

Dan Smith, chef patron, Fordwich Arms, Kent

In August, we went to San Sebastián for our first wedding anniversary. We first went on holiday there about six years ago. Tash, my wife, who does all of the pastry at the Fordwich Arms, is pregnant and this was our last chance to get away before the baby. We have an emotional attachment, it’s our place. We ate baby monkfish with crispy garlic at Casa Cámara, a family-run restaurant set into the side of the sea. There’s a lobster cage on a wheelie system that drops down into the ocean. They bring the fish roasted whole to the table, it’s incredible. The secret is in the emulsified oil with monkfish juice.

Brussels sprouts with caramelised lemons at Hapuku Lodge, Kaikoura, New Zealand

Ravinder Bhogal, chef-owner, Jikoni, London

I just came back from New Zealand where I stayed at Hapuku Lodge on the South Island. We weren’t expecting incredible food, because hotel food sometimes isn’t the best, but we were completely blown away by the chef Fiona Read. I had really bad laryngitis and her food was just so healing and comforting. She’s not trying to show off, but is just using whatever is available locally and it’s all really delicious. Every day we ate amazing food, but one dish stood out, which was brussels sprouts cooked with a lemon puree. She cooked them perfectly – the outer leaves were slightly charred and the insides were soft but still had bite – and they were served with caramelised lemons and some seeds. It was really simple but utterly compelling eating – like eating a plate of sweets, you just can’t stop.