Young Talents of the Year

T.k stands for Test Kitchen. Michael Adé Elégbède's restaurant in Ikoyi, Lagos is clandestine - almost a hidden secret. Elégbède is one of a number of young chefs who are taking the recipes and ingredients of his homeland and integrating them into today's cuisine. His shrimp with banga, a soup made from palm fruits or his Ayamase ragout with goat and rice are free interpretations but still loyal to his grandmother's cooking. Somewhere to try right away.

Kin Dee means “Eat Well” in Thai. Self-taught female chef and former model Dalad Khambu has quickly become an ambassador for Thai cuisine in Berlin, and speaks out against artificial flavourings and cheap takes on her country's food. She prepares her dishes with a Thai approach, buying her ingredients and vegetables nearby because “a papaya salad in Germany shouldn’t taste the same as a papaya salad in Thailand.” Dalad Khambu's lesson? If you treat Thai food as a great cuisine, you’ll find that it is a great cuisine. This is how it’s treated at Kin Dee.

Scottish female talent Lorna McNee, 34, is drawing old fans and curious diners to the Scottish city of Glasgow. Following 12 years at Gleneagles under the late Andrew Fairlie, and a win at the 2019 Great British Menu competition, she took her first head chef role at Glasgow’s Cail Bruich in 2020. Known for marrying exquisite presentation with robust Scottish flavours, a McNee menu might feature wild Scottish mushrooms with black garlic, brioche, and black truffle, or Orkney scallop with apple, cucumber, and kohlrabi.

In these unpredictable times, Peru’s loss has become a home run for the Philippines. Chef Kevin Uy, 27, spent time studying Peruvian cuisine in the Andes before working at the feted Central in Lima, and was due back there when the pandemic hit. He decided to bring what he’s learned from Virgilio Martínez to a Filipino audience, and at Viajé is serving popular Peruvian dishes to take away at gourmet levels: pollo a la brasa, cochinillo, chicken fat tacos, fried yuca.

La Mirande is one of the most beautiful hotels in France. While it’s always had good chefs, they’ve moved on without causing a stir. Let's hope Florent Pietravalle stays. His menu reads almost like an adventure novel: the best of the vegetable garden with Migliore oyster, XO sauce, samphire, buckwheat and flat bread, Figatellu sausage and Brousse de Rove cheese, burnt onion with sardine, caviar garum, horseradish and beef marrow. His dishes are all highly technical and carefully put together.

Robuchon Etoile female chef Mélanie Serre has revived this Parisian neighbourhood bistro. There’s veal and foie gras terrine en croûte, trotters on toast, quail stuffed with dried fruits, and saddle of venison, but also confit beef cheek in miso and goji berries in the blackcurrant coulis. The Robuchon touch makes itself known in dishes such as spider crab with Imperial of Sologne caviar, in shellfish gel. Superb wine dinners.