“If you lose your harvest, you go to a corner and cry, but next year is going to be better,” says Ana Rôs. As a chef, she is strict about where her ingredients come from. There are no excuses. You adapt to what mother nature has to offer, not the other way round. She is one of the owners of Hiša Franko, a two Michelin star restaurant in Slovenia. Her philosophy mirrors that of mother nature: it is natural, it is local and it helps the surrounding areas. Whilst her focus is on Slovenian cuisine, the tasting menu she serves up is far from traditional.  

Located in Soča Valley in Slovenia is Hiša Franko, next to the Julian Alps. When first walking through the doors, guests immediately feel at home. In fact, the property is the house of the two owners, chef Ana Rôs and sommelier, Valtar Kramar. The start of this culinary experience is immediately injected with an alluring and welcoming ambience. What makes this restaurant stand-out from the rest is the focus on local food. Rôs’ forager’s, for example, are only allowed to pick the produce within a 15-20km radius around the restaurant. According to Rôs, Soča Valley is arguable the greenest part of Slovenia; she wants to show just how far you can take that in a two-Michelins starred restaurant. 

Unlike many well known chefs, Ana Rôs was destined to start a career as a diplomat in the former Yugoslavia. As with many path changes, love got in the way. She met her husband Valter Kramar, which is when she started to dabble in cooking. Completely self-taught, Rôs built a name for herself in the industry.

From starring in the Netflix show Chef’s Table, to being voted The World’s Best Female Chef in 2017 and earning two Michelin stars, she has definitely put Slovenia on the gastronomic map. “As I see it, the kitchen is a symbiosis of three elements: the territory, the season and the personality of the chef,” she says on her website. At Hiša Franko, guests will be able to experience a playful and exclusive spin on local and traditional Slovenian cuisine.

The restaurant offers one tasting menu, showcasing dishes which are intense and bold in flavors and pairings. Given the strong bond between seasonal and local produce, the dishes sometimes vary regarding the star ingredient. However, one long standing speciality which is always on the menu, has a distinct flavor palette: a corn beignet with fermented cottage cheese, smoked trout roe and wild chives. Here especially, guests will be able to see Rôs’ approach to reinventing and reimagining classic and mundane ingredients, elevating them to a Michelin standard. 

The husband and wife duo complete this culinary experience with Kramar’s sommelier know-how. All the dishes have specially researched wine pairings. Her husband was one of the first Slovenian sommeliers, turning his attention towards national, natural and biodynamic wine. Guests have the option to include the wine pairing for all the dishes or half of them, if they wish to do so. 

Over a decade ago, the team at Hiša Franko started a process which connected producers, farmers and local people together. Miha is their personal forager, picking and bringing to the house the herbs, plants and mushrooms which he found that morning. From the meadows to the marshes and nearby forests, the menu has no limits to being creative with what mother nature has to offer. They have a herbalist, work with a local fishing family — who provide them with the specialty, marble trout — and collaborate with high mountain farmers to obtain the only Slovenian indigenous breed of goat, the Drežnica goat. To say that the culinary experience at Hiša Franko is ingredient orientated would be an understatement. 

The restaurant is located in Kobarid, Slovenia. It is only about an hour away from Italy and located on the Soča River. From gorges to peaks and World War history, Kobarid is a small town with many things to do. Hiša Franko also has rooms — and prioritizes overnight guests to have a spot at the restaurant for dinner — so adventuring out into town shouldn’t be overlooked. There are plenty of hikes and trials which spiral through the river front, infamous gorges and forests. The scenery is very much taken out of a fantasy book: dramatic mountains overlooking lush pastures and valleys. It is no wonder that Rôs is proud of the territory and the ingredients that come with it. 

In such a small and often overlooked country like Slovenia, it is easy to opted for the capital city or the touristy lakes. Researched, mindful and creative restaurants may go unnoticed, especially if they are found in such a small town. Yet they can’t be ignored. Now with a new light on sustainability, reinventing gourmet cuisine is even more important. At Hiša Franko, Ana Rôs and her husband perfectly harmonize discovery with local and traditional Slovenian produce, creating dishes which are all too worthy of two Michelin stars.