Kobe Desramaults is the greatest strength emerging from Belgian cuisine. After training with legendary Dutch chef Sergio Herman, he returned – at 23 years of age – to his maternal grill-house, which was little more than a family restaurant located in the middle of the countryside, far from the city noise, 40 km outside of Lille, and began to gradually transform it to the point of converting it into charming rustic establishment with an undeniable and growing gastronomic impact.

Alexandre Gauthier, a young chef of 28 years, has already had a long professional career. His training in some of the finest houses has catapulted him to recognition; all the guides consider him to be one of the emerging powers in French cuisine. However, it’s not terribly risky to venture a guess that the best is still yet to come. Gauthier is a frontrunner who knows how to set a steady pace in his conquest of lofty goals. Quiet and ambitious, he has it clear in his mind that he must grow, but grow while maturing, with both feet planted firmly on the ground.

STOP THE PRESSES.

Segovia has always claimed as its own one of the most beautiful examples of Spain’s traditional food: roast suckling pig, or ‘tostón asado’, served here, in the city of aqueducts, at authentic culinary temples, the most important of which–and with a marked difference in quality–being José María, an established house that opened in 1982, located just a few steps off the Plaza Mayor. The owner, José María Ruiz Benito, has turned the suckling pig into an art form–a science–to the point of becoming a renowned tourist attraction as well.