Half-an-hour across London. An hour-thirty on the Eurostar. Taxi from straight outside Gare de Lille Europe. ‘Dranouter, S’il vous plaît.’ ‘Où?’ il m’a demandé. ‘Dran-out-er, en Belgique à Heuvelland, quarante kilomètres d’ici,’...

  Bras. Michel Bras always found it too difficult to leave his native land of Aubrac. Born in Gabriac, he attended grammar school in Espalion before moving to Laguiole, where his parents ran a little restaurant – Lou Mazuc. He has remained there or...

  In the town of Valence, there was once a famous jurist called Jacques Cujas. He had an even more famous student, François Rabelais, who would go on to become the writer of note and notoriety from the Renaissance. Besides author, editor, friar,...

Iñaki Aizpitarte could be the coolest chef in Paris. Tall and swarthy, wearing three-day-old stubble and pastel yellow socks, he can often be seen behind the bar of Le Chateaubriand entertaining his regular chic clientele that includes actors,...

   Noma = Nordisk + Mad = Nordic + Food. A simple name reveals a simple aim. There is a movement (for lack of a better term) in gastronomy towards a cuisine that is, above all, natural, but also generally fiercely local, seasonal and with a focus on...