Langdon Hall in Cambridge, Ontario, 90 minutes from Toronto, is as sublime and sophisticated as the food Jason Bangerter serves there. As a leader in Canadian cuisine, Bangerter is dedicated to localism and sources 80% of his produce from the region, serving the best fish and fowl with unique seasonal touches, such as sour cherry preserves, chestnut confit, “forest floor broth”, and toasted hay and barley jus, with luxurious flourishes like champagne velouté, organic Canadian caviar, and truffles. Langdon Hall is a 19th-century country house hotel built for the Astors, set in a 75-acre estate with a kitchen garden and spa. In Europe, Bangerter worked with Anton Mosimann and Pierre Koffmann. He came home to Canada in 2002 and is about to complete a decade at Langdon Hall.

“Flemish Viking” Willem Hiele started simple, serving dinner from his parents’ former fisherman’s cottage in Ostend on the coast of Belgium, in 2015. After a short break last year he’s back for 2022, with a new eponymous restaurant in a Brutalist building in the Keignaert nature reserve. Hiele comes from a family of fishermen and says he is led by the “rhythm of the sea, the unpredictability of nature, and the individuality of the region”. This means he serves one tasting menu, taking diners through sea, earth, grass, and fire, interpreting the land through food.

You might not think of Guatemala as a food destination, but Debora Fadul is here to change that. Her Guatemala City restaurant Diacá brings indigenous flavors to the fore, with every dish at her chef’s table starting with the ingredient rather than a technique or recipe. There are tomatoes, corn and chillies, of course, as well as coffee, cardamon, mushrooms, and sesame. She also focuses on the people, both grower and cook, starting conversations between producer and consumer. Guatemala is well known for its geography and wildlife, and Fadul is working tirelessly to elevate its food culture to the same level, through Diacá and a number of non profit organizations, such as her database of producers, Crece en Guate.

Drink in the view of Hermanus harbor alongside your seafood at the hidden gem of Perlemoen, a stone fisherman’s shack on the coast 120km south of Cape Town. This was the site of the town’s first abalone hatchery - called perlemoen in South Africa - and is the only restaurant dedicated to serving the specialty fresh out the sea. Jannie and Annabella Malherbe restored the building and opened their no-reservation, BYO restaurant in May 2022. Tasting plates of abalone include carpaccio, ceviche, risotto and abalone Benedict, alongside an abundance of other local seafood.

When Antonia Klugmann found this 17th century mill in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, east of Venice near the Italian-Slovenian border, it offered the perfect spot for Klugmann’s first restaurant. She spent four years renovating to create a small dining room - only 18 covers - with spellbinding views of both the countryside and Klugmann at work in her kitchen. Her elegant style is guided by the seasons and region, therefore the two tasting menus and small à la carte change frequently and she is inspired by ingredients rather than bound to tradition, pairing Jerusalem artichokes with baccalà, beef carpaccio with bone marrow and cavolo nero, and creating stunning pasta such as beetroot ravioli with roast chicory, and corn gnocchi with Parmesan extraction and juniper oil. Though off the beaten track, there are three rooms for diners to stay the night - especially useful if you’ve fully explored the regional wine list!

This long-awaited opening in the grounds of the 18th-century Château de Saint-Vrain, 40km south of Paris, was previously home to the Comtesse du Barry, the Borghese, and then the studios of Niki de St. Phalle and the sculptor Tinguely. After a notable stint at Bones in Paris, Australian chefs James Henry and Shaun Kelly began selling produce from their own farm to top restaurants, and featured in the New York Times. Today, their farm-to-table project, Le Doyenné, welcomes customers with dishes such as autumn barbajuan, eggplant and Doyenné lardo tartine, marinated Charentes shrimp, root vegetable salad and homemade ricotta, scallops with wild mushrooms, and braised Kriaxera Duckling. The 40-cover farmhouse restaurant also has 11 rooms, and exploring the abundant walled garden is almost as attractive a proposition as dinner.

Jérôme Jaegle of Alchémille in Kaysersberg has won a slew of awards and competitions since his apprenticeships with Jean-Yves Schillinger and Christian Têtedoie, but he returned to his hometown in Alsace to open his first restaurant, an ode to the indigenous flora and fauna of the area and a true hidden gem. This son and grandson of butchers reminds us of a young Michel Bras and draws on his love of nature to create dishes inspired by his kitchen garden, as well as foraging, fermenting and preserving to bring diners the best of the region, year-round, with his constantly evolving cuisine. There is a choice of three menus, all with a focus on local and plant-based products, such as courgettes, radishes, trout roe, fennel, hogweed, snails, mint, asparagus, and ceps.

Venture to Payrin-Augmontel, a small commune in the Tarn, south-east of Castres, and your reward is Villa Pinewood, a unique restaurant from chefs and sommeliers Thomas and Anne Cabrol, known for their tremendously popular No.5 Wine Bar in Toulouse. Here, their 15-course menu truly celebrates local producers, and the Cabrols are on hand during the evening to share more about the ingredients - 95% are from Tarn and 80% within 20km. There might be mushrooms with bay and wild herbs, cep and hazelnut pâté, and pigeon cooked on a flambadou with lard and Périgueux sauce. The wines are outstanding, it often seems the dish has been matched to the wine instead of the other way around, and at €89 this is a great value excursion.