I visited the most remote Michelin-star restaurant in the world – it was well worth the trip

Telegraph

3 days ago

It must be a record. Just seven weeks after opening his newrestaurant Paz, Poul Andrias Ziska has been awarded two Michelin stars. Located on a quiet street in Tórshavn, the tiny capital of the Faroe Islands, its soothing grey walls and blond-wood tables make me feel like I'm in a Nordic boardroom.
But in this minimal space the bustling open kitchen is just feet away from my table, and half a dozen chefs are hunched over their work surfaces like clockmakers assembling delicate timepieces. Circulating among them, Ziska peers through his trademark round spectacles, checking the tiny details of the creations on the plates.
I last saw Ziska at his previous restaurant – Koks – in a tiny village surrounded by icebergs on the shore of Disko Bay in Greenland. For three summers (2022-2024), under the midnight sun, he and his team served up dishes of musk ox, reindeer lichen and Greenlandic capelin while whales spouted within view of the restaurant windows.
In 2017, aged just 27, Ziska earned Faroe Islands their first ever Michelin star, followed by a second star two years later. Koks is now closed, but Ziska is back home in Tórshavn, once again setting out to prove that sometimes challenging Faroese flavours can be made accessible to an international audience. He reinvents local specialities such as fermented lamb, sheep tallow, wind-dried fish and fresh fulmar, so that diners get an understanding of the culinary soul of these islands where nature is raw and tough.
'I cook the things that surround me here in Faroes,' Ziska explains at the end of my meal. He is calm, unassuming and lacks arrogance about his awards. 'I want to use the ingredients I know, and for me there's no substitute for the freshness of what we can source locally.'
Just as he did at Koks, Ziska delivers a multi-course tasting menu at Paz, surprising my palate with earthy flavours: caviar in a buttermilk sauce spiced with locally gathered seaweed, horse-mussels with trout roe and pickled pine needles, and sea-snail served with fermented berries and wild coriander oil with turnip glaze. The stars of the show – and Ziska makes every meal a performance – are freshly steamed cod with bladderwrack, and a plump Faroese langoustine tail seared in a reduction of brown butter that somehow manages to taste of the freshness of the North Atlantic depths and yet be as sweet as a caramelised pudding.
Tórshavn may be the Faroese capital, but with a population of 20,000 people, it's smaller than Biggleswade. And yet, about a seven-minute walk downhill from the urban cool of Paz, I find myself in a cluster of historic black-timbered buildings with turf roofs. A cosy fish house named Barbara rubs shoulders with its more staid neighbour, Åarstova, specialising in hearty main courses of traditional roast lamb and chunky cod. Remarkably, in this same small section of town there are two more restaurants recommended in the new 2025 Michelin Guide.
Both are run under the oversight of Karin Visth, the Swiss sommelier who formerly managed Koks with Poul Andrias Ziska. She told me that she believes Tórshavn attracts tourists who've already been to the world's most gourmet destinations, and are looking for something extra. 'Our guests are often sophisticated travellers, so we have to make sure we deliver on their expectations. Other than seafood, we don't have as much variety in our fresh ingredients as some destinations, but what we do have is very high quality. Things grow slowly here, but they have excellent flavour.'
Visth is now also overseeing Ræst, with its high-end tasting menu created by Mexican chef Sebastian Jiménez. He invents dishes that respect Faroese flavours but adds a cheeky Hispanic twist. One of his concoctions is Arctic thyme pannacotta made with poached sweet potatoes, and preserved tangerine skins from his home country.
At the same time he also serves up the local mainstay: ræst kjøt (dry-aged lamb produced by the ancient technique of Faroese wind-drying). Like Ziska, he is also capable of wizardry, and my tastebuds have barely recovered from his fermented lamb shank with green chilli and rhubarb (also fermented).
If fermented flavours are overwhelming, then head a few metres along the cobbled alleyways of the old town and try Roks. Here, the atmosphere shifts from the dark wooden interior of Ræst to the bright and buzzing mood of a wine bar within sight of the marina.
As I cracked through my langoustine claws the staff were monitoring the output of not one but two Danish TV personalities who were documenting their dinners on Instagram. Faroes, for all its rustic charm, has some of the fastest Wi-Fi speeds in Europe. Roks capitalises on the availability of fresh seafood, with a set menu that might offer snow crab with singed onion, and sea urchin toast and caviar served with Faroese vodka made with fresh water obtained from an aquifer discovered while one of Faroes sub-sea tunnels was being excavated.
During the seemingly endless summer nights in Tórshavn none of this seems out of the ordinary. Sub-sea tunnels, turf roofs, fermented lamb, roasted fulmar. It's all very natural after a few days here. It's only as you leave for the outside world that you realise that the food is as startlingly dramatic as the landscape.
How to do it
The 16-course tasting menu at Paz costs DKK 2,500pp (£285), excluding drinks. A tasting menu at Ræst excluding drinks is DKK 1,700pp (£195)
Roks offer a five-course menu for DKK695 (£80). Three courses excluding wine at Åarstova costs DKK600 (£68).
The Faroes airline Atlantic Airways flies twice weekly from Gatwick to the islands until August 30, with return fares from £125 one way.
Three more far-flung places offering fabulous food
Mil, Peru
At 3,600 metres above sea level and two hours' drive from Cusco in Peru's Sacred Valley, Mil offers an immersive experience which includes a visit to ancient sacred sites and meeting members of the local farming community before eating in the thatched restaurant. Head chef Luis Valderrama Silva provides what he calls a 'vertical journey'. Expect Andean colours, mountain vistas and ancient varieties of vegetables.
The eight-course menu costs US $620 (£455)
Klein Jan, South Africa
In South Africa's magnificent Northern Cape, Jan Hendrik van der Westhuizen has created a unique homage to his birthplace. Better known for his Michelin-starred restaurant in the Old Port of Nice, Jan offers a taste of the vastness of the Kalahari at one of South Africa's best private game reserves. This is locally sourced, often wild meat, and guests can expect Karoo lamb and specialities like springbok.
A seven-course lunch including wine pairing costs £120
Kadeau, Bornholm, Denmark
Nicolai Nørregaard is a proponent of the New Nordic food manifesto, with its emphasis on fresh, local ingredients cooked to bring out the best of their flavours. On Bornholm Island figs and mulberries are foraged and combined with fresh herbs and vegetables grown in the restaurant 's own garden. Nørregaard also operates a sister restaurant in Copenhagen, but there's nothing to beat the tranquillity of a long summer day on this sleepy island in the Baltic.