Hiša Franko in Kobarid, Slovenia

Hiša Franko gained global renown through the Netflix show Chef's Table (watch it!). But Ana Roš and her husband Valter Kramer ran their inn and restaurant in Slovenia for over a decade before they gained international fame. Ana heads the kitchen, Valter makes cheese, brews beer, manages myriad details, also: rides snowboards and motorcycles - and this past weekend, takes me on a drive through Slovenian mountains of terraced grapevines to one of his favorite vineyards, Batic, where we taste 20 wines with the family who began winemaking in the late 1500's.

At night, Ana cooks: monkfish liver, goat kid brain, deer heart tartar, wild blueberries, chanterelles, micro carrots slimmer than pencils, herbs I've never heard of, whey from a nearby dairy, a score of funky fermented foams, jellies and broths. Ana speaks the language of the fields, the forest, her ancestors, but in a modern tongue, and she's trying to balance it all: fame and international demand, motherhood to her two bright and sensitive kids (they both competed in a national race the morning of my visit), commitment to her terroir. She puts her kids to bed, cooks dinner, introducing each peculiar course to me, sleeps for a few hours and drives to the airport to fly to NYC to cook another dinner.