basque in its glory - Castello di Casole

travelnews
where to be & what to see around the world
Glamour central
The Dry bar at San
Sebastián’s Hotel
Maria Cristina.
edited by frances hibbard
Have chef whites, will travel
Australian chefs take their talents to the world
this month. Quay’s Peter Gilmore and the Royal
Mail Hotel’s Dan Hunter are both bound for Peru
(see page 192 for our story about the country’s
dynamic food scene) for its Mistura food fair, from
7 September. The event will cram 70 food carts,
54 restaurants and half a million people into Lima’s
Campo de Marte for the annual celebration.
Back across the Pacific, Tetsuya Wakuda and
Est.’s Peter Doyle hit the sands for the second
annual Hawaii Food & Wine Festival. The event,
6-9 September, includes demonstrations, tastings
and big-ticket dinners. Doyle will cook at Iron
Chef Masaharu Morimoto’s dinner, while Wakuda
is donning an apron at the Chefs Who’ve Cooked
for Presidents and Royalty gala. mistura.pe;
hawaiifoodandwinefestival.com
hot destination
peru PHOTOGRAPHY john laurie
hotel maria cristina exterior photography Alamy/Peter Horree
basque in its glory
Dine and stay in style in Spain’s undisputed food capital.
SAN SEBASTIÁN Hungry in Spain? You’ll do well to find yourself in the
Bay of Biscay’s San Sebastián, or Donostia as it’s known to Basques. Take
your pick from no fewer than nine Michelin-starred restaurants in town,
including the dynamic trio of Arzak, Martín Berasategui and Akelarre –
each boasting three stars. Mugaritz, number three on the World’s 50 Best
Restaurants list, is a short drive up into the hills.
Or steer away from fine dining and do as the locals do: cruise between
bars enjoying pintxos, the Basque country’s famed tapas.
Come siesta time, the Maria Cristina makes an ideal base for culinary
tourists. The hotel has always attracted its share of European aristocrats and
Hollywood A-listers, lured by its riverfront location in the heart of the city.
This year, the Belle Époque beauty celebrates its 100th birthday
by opening the doors on a lengthy restoration. The neoclassical
sandstone structure next to the landmark Victoria Eugenia Theatre
Hotel Maria Cristina,
offers 136 rooms freshly kitted out in mellow hues of eggshell, grey
San Sebastián
and taupe, with the occasional violet accent.
Beneath the soaring ceilings of the lobby level are assorted public
areas dedicated to the region’s unashamed pursuit of the good life. The
sunlit library is filled with books covering Basque gastronomy, Spanish
art and culture. Next door is Dry, the hotel’s bar, which serves coffee by
day and attracts a lively and sophisticated crowd after dark. Don’t miss
the Dry San Sebastián, a Spanish take on the Martini.
Confused by the Cantonese cuisine at the hotel’s Tse Yang
restaurant? Pick up a “gastronomy map” from Maria Cristina’s
concierge team to chart a course for a night of pintxos or memorable
Michelin-worthy meals. Rooms from $325. Hotel Maria Cristina, Paseo
Republica Argentina 4, San Sebastián, Spain, +34 943 437 600,
hotel-mariacristina.com SCOTT ADAMS
Sights and tastes
Above: Peru’s
dynamic food scene.
Good enough to eat Delicious combinations are a
Jo Malone specialty. Her latest cologne, Blackberry & Bay, from
$90 for 30ml, is a day of berry-picking in a bottle. jomalone.com.au
213
travelnews
Tuscan sun
The Castello di
Casole estate
and (below
inset) its hotel
courtyard.
on location
Shooting for your supper
Wild boar and royal palettes at a new Tuscan estate.
SIENA Bart Spoorenberg, the urbane general manager of the
luxurious new Castello di Casole hotel in the glorious Tuscan
countryside near Siena, knows what’s coming when he’s told that
someone from the Moroccan embassy is on the phone.
It’s a plea for Spoorenberg to release his chef, Daniele Sera, for
a few days. Sera is the King of Morocco’s favourite Italian cook, and
the unwritten agreement is that he will go to Morocco when King
Mohammed VI wants him and the Castello can spare him.
King Mohammed is clearly a man of discernment. Nonna
wouldn’t recognise the dish billed as “Grandma’s potato gnocchi” at
the Castello’s Tosca restaurant. Its mix of coffee-scented veal cheek
and pine nut toffee sounds downright weird but tastes sublime.
The meal would be memorable if the terrace overlooked a car
factory. In fact, at sunset it is illuminated by an orange sun dipping
behind a backdrop that could not be more quintessentially Tuscan
if the great director Luchino Visconti himself had ordered it from
his studio painters.
The reference is not entirely whimsical. The hotel – now open
after a five-year, $100-million restoration project – pays homage
to the aristocratic Visconti, who lived at Castello di Casole in the
1960s. (The new frescoed hotel bar bears his name.)
Visconti donated the neighbouring hilltop village of Mensano
to his loyal farmworkers, and it is in Mensano’s Osteria del Borgo
that guests can enjoy a regional classic: wild boar pappardelle.
Hotel guests who like to hunt their game as well as eat it can join
the Castello’s game warden, Paolo Bagnoli, for an evening in
pursuit of this fabled animal.
Rare are the hotels, even in Italy, that offer guests the chance
to shoot wild boar. But then the 1700-hectare Castello di Casole
estate, with its brand new five-star bolthole in an ancient restored
castle, is a remarkably singular place. Castello di Casole, Località
Querceto, Casole d’Elsa, Siena, Italy, +39 0 577 961 508,
castellodicasole.com; rooms from $740 BRIAN VINER
Caribbean dream The West
Indies’ rich natural bounty inspired
Crabtree & Evelyn’s newly designed
men’s range. The new West Indian Lime
travel set, $35, includes shave cream,
after-shave balm, body wash and
cologne. crabtree-evelyn.com.au
Immune to it all Steel yourself for September’s change of season
with Swisse’s Professional Immune Response, $44.95 for 200ml,
a liquid tonic formulated with echinacea, super-herb andrographis,
olive leaf and pomegranate. swisse.com
215
First resort
The new Anantara
Bali Uluwatu
Resort & Spa.
Conrad
New York
travelnews
travelnews
Cool stays
in a tangy vinegar sauce (“easternstyle”) or a sweeter tomato sauce
(“western-style”). Order a
sandwich, which will come with
coleslaw on a squishy white bun,
or a plate, which generally comes
with slaw and hush puppies, or
lonely planet
cornmeal fritters.
answers your
If you’re in North Carolina in
travel queries
October, hit up the Barbecue
Festival in Lexington, which bills
Q: Texas, South Carolina or
Memphis – what does it all mean itself as the “barbecue capital of
the world” (barbecuefestival.com).
when Americans start talking
In Memphis, too, pork is king,
barbecue? And where are the
but
here
barbecue means two
best places to work it out for
things:
chopped
or pulled pork in
myself when I’m in the US?
a
sweet
tomato
sauce,
or tender
Jeremy Laudner, Vic
pork
ribs
–
order
’em
by
the rack
A: There are two crucial points
or
half-rack,
and
don’t
forget
the
I need to make about barbecue in
napkins.
I’
d
single
out
Charles
the southern United States. First:
Vergos’s Rendezvous (hogsfly.com),
“barbecue” is a noun not a verb.
a back-alley basement institution,
And second: otherwise sane
for ribs, and Payne’s Bar-B-Q
people often come to blows over
which regional version is supreme. (+1 901 272 1523) for pulled pork.
As you move further west into
In the Carolinas, barbecue
cattle
country, the definition of
means slow-cooked pork that’s
barbecue
suddenly shifts to
chopped or shredded and drowned
include beef. In Texas, the
quintessential ’cue is slow-cooked
beef brisket, dished up in
The Salt Lick
Bar-B-Que, Austin
shockingly huge portions. Some
restaurants serve nothing more
than meat and cottony sliced
white bread, which serves as
utensil, sauce-sop and napkin.
Top Texan spots include
Austin’s The Salt Lick Bar-B-Que
(saltlickbbq.com) and the town of
Lockhart, something of a barbecue
mecca. Happy eating, y’all. Emily
Matchar is co-author of Lonely
Planet’s USA. Write to traveldesk@
acpmagazines.com.au and a
Lonely Planet author will reply.
NEWS IN brief
travel desk
Q&A
neighbourhood watch
Three new hotels for exploring New York’s newly hip ‘hoods.
gloss after a recent makeover.
NoMad
Nomad
Neighbourhood The hotel is named Eat, drink and be merry The
for its location at the heart of the
famous Blue Bar, opened just after
recently christened Nomad (North
prohibition, has been expanded
of Madison Square Park) ’hood.
and updated with blue LED
Selling point The French-inspired
lighting and a striking glass
décor – leather headboards,
sculpture wall.
clawfoot tubs and vintage Persian
Weakest link This is one of New
rugs – courtesy of French design
York’s busiest neighbourhoods,
guru Jacques Garcia.
especially at rush hour, so don’t
Eat, drink and be merry The city’s
expect tranquillity with your dose
PYTs flock to the show-stopping
of history. Most rooms have only
seven-metre mahogany bar, and the showers, not bathtubs like the
carefully curated two-level library.
old days. Rooms from $585.
Weakest link The neighbourhood is algonquinhotel.com
suspended above the futuristic
still undergoing gentrification, and
Conrad New York
atrium-style lobby. Be sure to
can feel gritty and crowded. Rooms Neighbourhood Financial District/
check out the low-slung couches,
from $430. thenomadhotel.com
Battery Park City, with views of the
illuminated from below so they
Hudson River.
The Algonquin
appear to be hovering.
Neighbourhood Midtown, near
Selling point This contemporary
Eat, drink and be merry The
the bustling Times Square and
463-room downtown tower is
newly opened rooftop bar Loopy
Bryant Park.
filled with thought-provoking art
Doopy (named for the Sol LeWitt
Selling point This 181-room grand
from luminaries such as Sol LeWitt
mural in the lobby) has inspiring
dame – known for its legendary
and Monica Ponce de Leon,
g t 0 9 1 2Algonquin
_ U l t iRound
m a tTable
e H –i has
k ea.new
p d f whose
P a two-tiered
g e 1 sculpture
7 / 3 1 /is 2 0 1 2 ,views
9 of
: 3the
3 river
: 2 6and A
MStatue
the
T R A C K
•
T H E
of Liberty, along with inventive
drinks and alcoholic popsicles.
Weakest link The area can feel a
bit like no-man’s-land after the
Wall Streeters go home, although
things are improving thanks to
newcomers such as Danny Meyer’s
cult burger joint Shake Shack, just
down the road. Rooms from $525.
conradnewyork.com
Emma Sloley
R O U T E B U R N
GUIDED WALK PACKAGES
Take the hassle out of your holiday and
book your guided walk and Queenstown
accommodation all in one!
Packages include…
FREECALL 1800
925 569
1,070
FROM AU$
Per person based on 2 people
sharing. Conditions apply.
ULTIMATEHIKES.CO.NZ
UH308
Step into
the real world.
• Milford or Routeburn Guided Walk
• Accommodation on track
• 2 nights accommodation in Queenstown
• Transport to and from the track
• All meals and snacks whilst on the track
• Backpacks and rain jackets
barbecue photography Alamy/Dennis Cox fairmont hotel photography JOGINDER SINGH
M I L F O R D
The Algonquin
A new jewel for Jaipur
India’s luxury onslaught continues
with the opening of its first
Fairmont hotel. Fairmont Jaipur
is in a relatively quiet, suburban
area of the Pink City and built to
mimic the Mogal-era palaces that
dominate this corner of India. The
rich textiles and jewel tones of
Rajasthan inform the design while
the Mogal emperors’ personal
commitment to feasting is
honoured with the historically
inspired cuisine at Zarin
restaurant. fairmont.com/jaipur
The Fairmont
Hotel, Jaipur
island life
spring into bali
Indonesia’s favourite island beckons with two palatial new stays.
BALI Two decades ago, Amanusa set the benchmark for resort
living on Bali’s exclusive Nusa Dua enclave. Now the chic hotel
group behind the property, Aman Resorts, is set to redefine
tropical luxury with the debut of 10 villas nestled in the hinterland
behind the resort, the first of which opens next month.
The Amanusa villas are like modern Balinese palaces, with the
smallest sprawling across a 4000-square-metre block with 25-metre
pool, four bedrooms, elevated wantilan pavilion overlooking lushly
landscaped grounds, and staff quarters for the two maids and
cook assigned to each property. The pick of the pack will be Aman
founder Adrian Zecha’s personal villa, a lavish eight-bedroom
compound set on 14,000 square metres. Each of the 32 will have a
distinctive layout but similar concept and will be priced from $4000
per night. Views are over coastal bushland or the Bali National Golf
Resort, one of the island’s top-rated courses.
Villa guests will have access to the resort’s bar and restaurants,
where new executive chef Chau Doan (formerly of O’Connell’s and
The Grand in Melbourne) is reinvigorating Amanusa’s reputation for
destination dining. A short drive down the hill by zippy VW Safari
delivers guests to the Amanusa Beach Club with its breezy bales,
sparkling sea views and killer breakfast bentos of sesame-crusted
egg and bacon burgers, bircher muesli, fruit salad and pastries.
The resort’s new general manager, Sean Flakelar, has big things
planned for Amanusa’s 21st year – in 2013, all 35 suites will be
refurbished and the resort will unveil a full Aman spa.
Elsewhere on the Island of Gods, Anantara has opened an
elegant new retreat above Impossible Beach at Uluwatu. The resort’s
74 sea-view suites, two- and three-bedroom pool villas and duplex
penthouses cascade down the limestone cliff face to a striking
infinity pool and, beyond it, the Indian Ocean. The accommodation
features such treats as terrace hot tubs and Bose entertainment
systems, while the rooftop lounge bar and restaurant add yet
another striking dimension to the upscale Uluwatu experience.
amanresorts.com; bali-uluwatu.anantara.com KENDALL HILL
Little brother
Douglas Elder’s hearty fare can
make it difficult to nab a table at
Brown Brothers’ Epicurean Centre
in Milawa. Enter the Wine Room,
a new easygoing little sibling to
the restaurant, with a menu of
small dishes designed for grazing
as you sample the best from the
Brown Brothers cellar door. The
Epicurean Wine Room is open
11am-4pm daily. And next up?
A Prosecco pop-up bar.
brownbrothers.com.au/ourplace/
epicureancentre
Food in the ’hoods
Club rooms at the Intercontinental
Sydney come with access to the
32nd floor and its views of the
Opera House and Harbour Bridge
– well worth the upgrade. But for
travellers who’ve had their fill of
landmarks, the hotel’s new Sydney
Gourmet Tour package takes in
small producers – a microbrewer,
a coffee roaster and more – on the
city’s grittier backstreets. The
package, from $511 for two
people, is available until 31
October. intercontinental.com
217
travelnews
frequent flyer
Jeremy Moon,
founder,
Icebreaker
How important is frequent
travel to your world?
Eighty per cent of the
Icebreaker business is
international, so thankfully
travel is a critical part of my
life. This is probably why I set
up Icebreaker to be an
international business.
What are three things you
must pack on a business trip?
Sleeping pills, merino wool
underwear, an open mind.
What’s your one essential in
any hotel room? A sound
system for my iPhone.
What is your favourite part of
travelling? The first week away
and then seeing my family
when I return home.
What’s the first thing you do
when you get home from a
trip? Kiss my wife Ellie long
and hard, squeeze my
daughters, give my border
collie Molly a good rub.
Favourite airport? Wellington
is clean, modern and fun,
and it means I’m home. My
favourite international airport is
Schiphol in Amsterdam – great
architecture, super-efficient,
cool people and great retail.
Jeremy Moon
Living wild
On safari in Kenya
with Abercrombie
& Kent.
travel stars
Happy birthday, Legends
Favourite home away from
home? On the weekends it’s
our country house in the
Wairarapa; internationally it’s
New York City. I feel really alive
and at home there.
Most memorable recent
holiday? Bordeaux, staying at
Château Smith Haut Lafitte:
fantastic food, beautiful setting,
wonderful people, amazing
wines, pristine location and a
fantastic spa using products
made from grapes.
Do you have your own version
of a “uniform” for travelling?
Icebreaker short sleeve T-shirt
under Icebreaker Black Sheep
V-neck super-fine sweater,
jeans and Ferragamo shoes.
Icebreaker’s merino wool is
sourced from New Zealand’s
Southern Alps. icebreaker.com
Restaurant land might find itself envious this month of the
major milestones notched up by two travel industry greats.
It’s been 50 years since adventurous Brit Geoffrey Kent
founded the tour company that now takes people to seven
continents in style. Abercrombie and Kent’s combination of
luxury and exclusive adventure has made it one of the first
on the ground in Burma, a leader in Antarctic excursions,
and a pioneer in Africa.
A & K marks the milestone with an anniversary safari tour
of Kenya – its official birthplace – departing 29 September
and 7 October. The nine-night tour, from $12,705 per person
twin-share, features a mix of lodges, tented camps,
photography lessons, hot air ballooning over the Masai Mara
and lunch with Kent himself.
Also in September is the 125th birthday of Raffles
Singapore, and the hotel group is launching a year-long
program of events to celebrate. Among the festivities, select
Raffles hotels will serve a limited-edition anniversary cuvée
from Billecart-Salmon, and the group has collaborated with
Jaeger-LeCoultre on a custom-engraved Reverso watch to
mark the occasion.
Perhaps the most impressive offer is the “125 hours in
Paris with Raffles” at the Philippe Starck-overhauled Le Royal
Monceau Raffles Paris. Okay, so it costs about
$200,000 per couple, but it does include four
nights in the hotel’s presidential suite, a
helicopter trip to the Loire Valley, a private tour
of Paris’s galleries with the hotel’s art concierge
and personalised Pierre Hermé macarons.
abercrombiekent.com.au; raffles.com
218
IMAX, Hong Kong
launch pad
Expect to find an iPad in your seat
pocket soon if you’re on a Qantas
flight between Sydney and
Melbourne or across to Perth.
Positive feedback from customer
trials earlier this year means
the airline is now rolling out
Q Streaming across its fleet of
Boeing 767s. Passengers will have
access to 200 hours of free
entertainment via the new iPad
streaming program, with the
phased introduction of the tablets
from next month. qantas.com.au
Talking dirty
Saucy bestseller Fifty Shades of
Grey will join Virgin Atlantic’s new
in-flight entertainment program,
JAM. The new audio books
line-up will let passengers enjoy
EL James’s novel without
embarrassment, says Virgin
Atlantic’s Fay Burgin, adding “we
can’t be held responsible for any
risqué behaviour that listening to
the recording inspires.” JAM’s
touch-screen control panel offers
more than 300 hours of in-flight
entertainment. virginatlantic.com
gourmettraveller.com.au
Library/Ian Johnson
Maximum stopover
No more trawling the duty-free
for alcohol you can’t carry and
oversized chocolate bars you
don’t need. The world’s first
airport IMAX theatre is now open
at Hong Kong International
Airport’s Terminal 2. The UA
IMAX theatre on level six of the
terminal will show films in both
2D and 3D and, at an enormous
22.4 metres wide and 13.8 metres
high, puts even the pointy end’s
personal screens to shame.
uacinemas.com.hk
kenya photography Abercrombie & Kent Picture
SPRING FEVER Samsonite’s new Essensis spinner, from $299, with
its floral pattern and ultra-light weight, has a feminine edge – quite
rare in luggage land. samsoniteaustralia.com
AIRLINE briefS