Life on the Vine

Early last year Tom and I started researching some of the chefs highlighted in Netflix's show Chef's Table .  We know a few people who have journeyed to Modena, Italy to dine in Massimo Bottura's Osteria Francescana .  It is a three-star Michelin restaurant and Chef Bottura was the very first chef featured when Chef's Table premiered.  While researching Hiša Franko , the restaurant that features Ana Roš's artistry as a self-taught chef, featured in Season 2 of Chef's Table, we discovered it was less than three hours away.  We devised a plan to visit her restaurant in October as our anniversary gift/trip/experience.  We made reservations in March and waited in anticipation for seven months! Hiša Franko is located in the Soča Valley and is less than 8 kilometers from the Italian border of Udine province -- closest good-size Italian town is Cividale del Friuli.  The restaurant has its own hotel so we were able to stay onsite the night of our reservation.  Th

I originally sat down to write a combined food and wine post -- since its about time for another one on wine -- but after spending about 30 minutes looking through all my photos it felt a bit overwhelming.  Since September we've had some pretty memorable food moments and I think they warrant posts of their own.  We'll begin with our trip to Greece in September where we did a 7-day sailboat cruise around the Ionian Sea -- with all our meals prepared by our lovely hostess Despina.  I want to also share some photos from our trip to Slovenia in October where we got to dine in Chef Ana Roš' restaurant Hiša Franko -- she was featured in Season 2 of Chef's Table.  As well as some food pics from our trip earlier this month to Calabria -- the toe of Italy's boot -- where we literally ate high on the hog for an entire week while Tom took a charcuterie course at the Italian Culinary Institute. After just writing the Greek portion - which follows - I thought this post wou