The innovative, self-taught chef presides over a menu that takes its cues from the astonishing variety of produce offered up by the Slovenian terroir – so diverse that in 2016 local ethnologists divided the country into 23 distinct gastronomic regions. Such rich natural ingredients and the resulting cuisine, which combines Italian, Balkan and alpine influences – in dishes such as buckwheat beignet with sour ricotta and porcini mushrooms, and cured sardine with figs and black lemon – has seen Slovenia named the European Region of Gastronomy for 2021.