What is it about eating al fresco in another country, sun shining, wine flowing, that also makes the food taste so good?
Everyone remembers a particular summer holiday dish that stays in the memory, long after the plane has landed and bags have been unpacked.
Here are the holiday meals and settings that top chefs most remember.
Nathan Outlaw. (Image: Kate Whitaker/PA)
Nathan Outlaw
“For my dad’s 60th, and he’s now 70, so about 10 years ago, we went to the north of Spain. Everyone goes on about San Sebastián, and San Sebastián is fantastic, but just outside about maybe 25-30 minutes, is a place called Getaria. There is a really good restaurant called Elkano – everyone goes on about their turbot there,” says Michelin-star chef Nathan Outlaw.
“I took my dad there and we couldn’t get in so we walked down the hill to the harbour, the people who have that restaurant [Elkano] have got cousins with a restaurant called Kaia-Kaipe – another seafood restaurant that overlooks the whole harbour area.
“We sat there hand had whole turbot, longesteins in an almost egg batter, simply cooked, the most beautiful, rich , shellfish soup. It’s the benchmark for me. It wasn’t Michelin star or anything like that, it was just incredible.
“To share that with my dad and my brother, the three of us, made it even more fantastic. Being in that area of the North Atlantic as well, wild like Cornwall, but being in Spain, it was so lovely.”
Nathan Outlaw On Fish: A Seafood Handbook (Kyle Books, hardback £30) photography by Kate Whitaker. Available now.
Brin Pirathapan (Image: Dan Jones /PA)
Brin Pirathapan
“We were on this island on Ilha Grande in Brazil. There were many restaurants on the side of a sandy road, we’re sitting outside and it was super hot. [The dish] is called moqueca, a Brazilian fish stew,” says 2024 BBC One MasterChef winner Brin Pirathapan.
“We weren’t really expecting much, but the smokiness, all the different types of fish, and a really zesty finish… I went back to the same restaurant – which is very rare for me to do – I just sat by that same sandy road.
“It was a trip that we went on because I was very committed to my career, and my wife kind of drilled it into me that if I don’t go and travel now, I never will. It was a trip that ended up making me realise that work wasn’t everything.”
Elevate: Everyday Ingredients, Incredible Flavours by Brin Pirathapan (Pavilion, handback £22) photography by Dan Jones. Available now.
Nisha Katona (Image: Nassima Rothacker/PA)
Nisha Katona
“Do you know what I absolutely can’t get over is spaghetti alle vongole from Sorrento, Italy – clams, white wine, the Bianco version. It’s very rare that I get to go on holiday and then to sit there in the sun for my first meal, the ultimate taste of the Amalfi Coast, you are feeling the sun and you can see Vesuvius, with a crisp white wine, the sea in front of you,” says TV chef Nisha Katona.
“It’s everything you worked for that dish. I work so that I can eat, and that I can have little breaks to the Amalfi Coast.
“It’s a symbol of, you’ve worked for this, and for you to sit down and have that bowl of spaghetti, looking at a sparkling blue sea, and with a volcano in the background, it is the flavour of you’re there.
“I found a hotel on a little bit of a beach in Sorrento. From there, I’m obsessed with Pompeii, I’m obsessed with Herculaneum, and then from there you can go to Positano.
“I judge a place how well they do their spaghetti alle vongole.”
The Curry Bible by Nisha Katona (Penguin Michael Joseph, hardback £28) photography by Nassima Rothacker. Available now.
Geogina Hayden (Image: Laura Edwards/PA)
Georgina Hayden
“Early last year in Mallorca, I got to spend a day with this chef called Jesus, and he cooked us paella and it was honestly the best I’ve ever had. He was so kind and he gave me the recipe,” says Georgina Hayden – she even put it in her latest book MEDesque. “Because it was just so good.
“And it’s really unusual because it’s not a traditional paella… he puts cumin in there, which I think is probably going to upset people, but that’s not murdering it. You know, he’s a Spanish guy, he’s allowed to play with his own recipes, but it was phenomenal.
“It was the best paella I’ve ever had and, in terms of what I’ve eaten recently, that blew me away. That was really, really spectacular.”
MEDesque by Georgina Hayden (Bloomsbury Publishing, hardback £26) photography by Laura Edwards. Available now.
Tim Anderson (Image: Laura Edwards/PA)
Tim Anderson
“There’s a place in Miyako, which is an island in Okinawa, and the restaurant is called Tonarino and they do oden. Oden is like a Japanese stew – it usually has a lot of root vegetables and fish cakes and stuff in it, just simmered for a long time,” says 2011 BBC One MasterChef winner Tim Anderson.
“This place, Tonarino, they do oden, but they do some quite creative versions of it. So, they did a standout dish – I think it’s their signature dish – and it’s a slice of daikon radish, which is cooked in dashi, which is standard for oden, but then they cover it in this really delicious truffle cream sauce, and it just tastes like a huge, juicy mushroom. It’s delicious.
“That was an interesting place because there aren’t a lot of people who really do anything creative with oden. It’s quite a traditional dish.
“So, it’s quite cool to see anybody doing something like putting a unique spin on it. And it’s a really friendly place, like a neighbourhood, a local kind of place, and [they have] a great selection of Awamori [a local drink], friendly staff, and not just the oden. They do side dishes as well that are really good, and again, creative, and all seasonal as well. I didn’t have a single dud there, it was all delicious.”
JapanEasy Kitchen by Tim Anderson (Quadrille, hardback £26) photography by Patricia Niven. Available now.
