Watch Anthony Bourdain breaking bread with locals on a plastic stool in a tropical hole-in-the-wall, or Gordon Ramsay milk camels and cast a fishing line into shark-infested waters, and you’ll understand that food itself is an excellent propellant to travel. In fact, it can often be the defining experience of your trip.
If, to you, holidays are the hiss of a Tsingtao as you carve into lacquered duck, pani-puri dunked in chutney and eaten roadside, the crack of a just-caught lobster’s shell, the twirl of a cacio e pepe-slathered spaghetti noodle… well, cleanse your palate and pack your appetite. We’ve sought out next-level culinary experiences from Sri Lanka to St Lucia that serve up the world on a plate.
Say ‘hi’ to Sumba’s dining scene at Cap Karoso
Remote, ruggedly beautiful Indonesian isle Sumba has never had a food festival before, but that in no way means it’s a culinary desert. In fact, it’s very green and fertile, with fat mangoes, coconuts and cassava, heady herbs bursting forth, and fresh fish a given. All of which come into play at Sumba’s inaugural culinary celebration (from 4 to 18 October) hosted by Cap Karoso hotel, which is well-connected with the local Sumbese.
For the event, 10 lauded chefs from the Asia-Pacific region (including Janice Wong from Singapore’s 2am: Dessertbar and Deepanker Khosla from Haoma in Bangkok) will harvest native ingredients from the hotel’s three-acre farm and work alongside locals to craft deeply rooted dishes.
To order There are 30 gourmet experiences to choose from, each designed for diners to connect with Sumba’s terrain and unique culture, from pairing up chefs for ‘four hands’ dinners to wine tastings on the sand and ocean-to-table banquets. But it’s the ‘food safari’ that really digs in, showing off the spectacular settings ingredients are sourced from.
Something sweet Cap Karoso’s founders have supported the local community since before they broke ground. A portion of proceeds from the festival will be funnelled into projects that benefit indigenous Sumbese, providing clean water to nearby Hameli Ate village, nutritional education in schools, sustainable farming workshops, and helping to set up seed funds for small food businesses.
Tap into Sri Lanka’s culinary traditions at Aarunya
It’s sweet, creamy and adds some dreamy sway to that ‘ah, I’m on holiday’ feeling: the fermented sap from coconut flowers is a potent potion. Served straight, as ‘toddy’, it gives a mild buzz; distilled as Arrack, a spirit mixed with molasses and botanicals, you’ll shiver as you shoot it. It’s a totem of community rituals; a warranted reverence considering the complex process and dying art of tree-tapping involved in making it.
In season (January to March), Aarunya Nature Resort, a stay with a strong social conscience, gives guests a rare glimpse of acrobatic tree-tappers from local farms, who ascend into the canopy of their kithul palm grove, balancing on branches and ladders made of coconut husks. Once the tree is tapped out, you’ll see the alchemical magic of turning the sap into toddy.
To order You’ll also get to try the toothache-sweet treats of treacle and jaggery (palm sugar). And if you want that sap-to-the-face feeling, the hotel’s bar serves a mean Arrack Sour.
Something sweet Cinnamon’s warm spiciness is the kind of scent holidays are booked on — a whiff conjures up dark, velvety dahls and karis. Add on Aarunya’s cinnamon-peeling experience (available May to July or October to November) to watch raw bark transform into aromatic sticks; you’ll learn about the spice’s high ranking in Sri Lankan heritage, get some to take home and leave smelling like Christmas.
Swing for your Maldivian supper at Soneva Fushi
You may be an adventurous eater, but have you Indiana Jones-ed your way through banyan trees and coconut palms at top speed, and teetered over rope bridges to keep a dinner reservation? Soneva Fushi’s ‘Flying Sauces’ experience sends you through the rampant greenery of the Baa Atoll Unesco Biosphere Reserve like one of the native fruit bats out of hell as you ride a 200-metre zipline circuit to your destination-dining point.
You’ll deboard at a stilted wooden turret tucked into jungle, overlooking the shining sands of aptly named Dolphin Beach. As your heart returns to resting rate, it’s the turn of whichever Michelin-lauded chef resident that week to then thrill you with barbecued seafood, slow-cooked meats, desserts dotted with tropical flowers and synaesthetic flavour combos.
To order You can fly out for a sunrise breakfast or high tea, but the two-hour, starlit dinner most rewards your efforts. Chef high-fliers such as Pascal Barbot (Astrance, Paris), Alberto Faccani (Magnolia, Emilia-Romagna) and Wassim Halal (Frederikshøj, Denmark) have previously been tasked with taking the food to this higher level, so finding out your culinary captain is part of the thrill.
Something sweet Take a breather and learn how Soneva keeps dining sustainable on the ‘Slow Life Journey’. You’ll tour the environmental hub and organic gardens as staff debrief on permaculture and the many uses of coconuts, while picking greens for lunch.
Enjoy Gruyère en plein air in Switzerland’s La Grande Bellevue
In Gstaad, come summer, the hills are very much alive, as guests of La Grand Bellevue hotel judder down mountain trails by bike, relish cooling wild swims and practise pranayama in fresh Alpine air. When heading out on a hike, be sure to pack the essentials — toss out the trail mix and Clif Bars, and load your pack with a caquelon, wedges of Gruyère, bottle of wine, pepper grinder and crusty loaf for dunking.
Find peak indulgence in the hotel’s Fondue Backpack, an excellent incentive for even the most languid hedonists to tackle the slopes. If that still sounds exhausting, take the luxury to ridiculous heights and combine with a heli-hike; the chopper will do some of the leg work for you, plonking you on a scenic elevation for your sip-and-dip feast.
To order Your backpack can be tailored to your taste, should you wish to add charcuterie, crudités or chocolate-dipped strawberries — you’ll earn them, after all. But if you save your energy picnicking in the hotel grounds instead, you’ll find they don’t skimp on scenery, thanks to neat lawns, flowering plants and clanging herds of passing cattle.
Something sweet Fondue in the wild is a summer experience (available June to October). In snowier climes, book adorable lodge, Le Petit Chalet, where — warmed by a wood-burner — you can OD on dairy: bubbling fondue pots spiked with truffle; tangy, melty goat cheese; oozy raclette…
Enter Hotel Chocolat’s world of pure imagination in St Lucia
Anyone who’s pocketed a pack of ‘trillionaire shortbread cups’ as they’re catching a train or invested in a hot-chocolate-upgrading ‘Velvetiser’ will be thrilled to know that cut-above sweet-supplier Hotel Chocolat has an actual hotel, The Rabot, where cacao is king. It’s wrapped in rainforest and overlooks St Lucia’s Piton mountains, and all guests are offered an exclusive tour of the estate’s working organic cacao farm.
On this Wonka-esque journey you’ll try your hand at grafting trees, taste cacao pulp straight from the pod, and inhale the drying boxes for that rich, roasted-cocoa scent; plus, you’ll learn about sustainability measures and take a scenic stroll along the rainforest boardwalk. Upgrade to the Tree-to-Bar experience, and you’ll also get hands-on, crafting your own 72% cacao, dark-chocolate bar as a sweet souvenir.
To order Think outside the chocolate box when it comes to dining, because every part of the cacao pod is used here: nibs sprinkled over soups and meats, beans infused into oils and sauces, white chocolate mashed into potatoes… The Tree-to-Bar experience includes a market-style lunch where you’ll see how versatile an ingredient it can be.
Something sweet Unlike a Wonka tour, this one has only good outcomes: chocolate for you, and funding for the hotel’s ‘gentle farming’ initiatives (planting cacao and shade trees together to promote biodiversity, providing worker support and holding organic-agriculture workshops). Plus, the Island Growers’ Program, where local farmers get subsidised seedlings and above-market rates for their harvests.
Deep dive into dashi at Six Senses Kyoto
Japanese cuisine epitomises the ‘looks almost too good to eat’ idiom: the precision-cut sashimi platters, the wunderkammer Bento-boxes, balletic tea pours and kawaii character creations… But it’s in humble dashi, a broth flavoured with seaweed and bonito flakes, then whatever else the season provides, where the beauty of Japanese cuisine’s simplicity shines. Dashi is ripe with umami, feels like a hug in a bowl and has deep roots in Kyotan dining tradition.
At Six Senses Kyoto, chef Harada will outline the complex and elegant methods involved in perfecting your broth (finding the purest water, finessing filtration etc) — talking you through its culinary significance in Kyoto and regional variations before you feast on flavours that have evolved over centuries.
To order After sampling your own chef-aided creation, chef Harada will show you how it’s really done over a multi-course meal, during which you’ll try three types of broth, dashi risotto, seasonal vegetables, artful snacks and oyakodon (a comfort dish made with chicken, eggs and rice).
Something sweet Get a deeper, richer understanding of Kyoto’s cuisine and how it’s affected by the city’s many micro-seasons through the hotel’s Koyomi Afternoon Tea journey. This combines holism with herbal brews, starting at the Alchemy Bar where you’ll make your own herbal blend to accompany sweets and savouries that are free from refined sugar and gluten.
We’ve more tasteful experiences with our culinary offers; and seek out the masters of mealtime through our Yes, Chef series