Here are some restaurant openings and events we can’t wait to experience, as well as a few classics worth revisiting.
Santina (New York)
The Mario Carbone, Jeff Zalaznick and Rich Torrisi partnership expands with the recent launch of Santina near the Highline in Manhattan.
Despite the Meatpacking District location, the focus here is on seafood, along with the group’s Italian cuisine, which has proved successful in their Carbone restaurants in both New York and Hong Kong.
Santina is named after Mario’s grandmother, so Sicily will be featured strongly on the menu.
Santina, 820 Washington St., New York; +1 212 254 3000
The Fat Duck (Melbourne, Australia)
Heston Blumenthal’s groundbreaking Fat Duck is temporarily decamping from wintry Berkshire in the UK to sunnier climes in Melbourne, Australia.
The relocation to The Crown Towers Hotel offers diners the same three-Michelin-star experience and menu as the original, promising “a multi-sensory phantasmagoria.”
You’re out of luck though if you’d like a table — all reservations for the six-month stint have already been filled via an online ballot system that’s now closed. Time to work that network of yours for an invite.
The Fat Duck will be in Melbourne from February 3 to August 15, 2015.
The Fat Duck, Level 3 Crown Towers, 8 Whiteman St., Southbank, Melbourne, Australia; +61 3 9292 5778
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Waterside Inn, Ferry Road, Bray, West Berkshire, United Kingdom; +44 1628 620 691
Amber, The Landmark Mandarin Oriental (Hong Kong)
Under Dutch maestro Richard Ekkebus, Amber at the Landmark Mandarin has gone from strength to strength.
The mystery for serious diners is why he’s not been awarded an elusive but thoroughly merited third Michelin star to join the two he’s held for a decade.
Ekkebus takes classic French technique and execution and throws in global flavors and produce to deliver often brilliantly innovative dishes, delivering an atlas of exemplary cuisine on a plate.
Amber, The Landmark Mandarin Oriental, 15 Queen’s Road Central, Hong Kong; +852 2132 0066
Chez Panisse (Berkeley, California)
Few chefs have had as much impact on contemporary American cuisine as Alice Waters.
She opened Chez Panisse back in 1971 and espoused a philosophy that has now become mainstream, namely to eat local, seasonal produce wherever possible.
Her legendary Berkeley restaurant is a warm, inviting temple to this thinking where the ingredients do the talking for a menu that changes daily.
Chez Panisse, 1517 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, California; +1 510 548 5525
Chris Dwyer is a Hong Kong-based communications consultant and food writer. For his restaurant reviews, chef interviews and more visit www.finefooddude.com.
