Best of Warsaw: Lifetime Achievement (Food)

Paweł Oszczyk (La Rotisserie)
It’s an irresistible restaurant, La Rotisserie. Placed down a scenic, cobbled street in Warsaw’s New Town, the culinary arm of the Regina Hotel is refined yet restrained: probably more so in nature than it is in look. There’s no shouty PR here, no camera crews filing in and out of the kitchen. Instead, this is a restaurant that just goes quietly about the modest business of just being sensational. Making it look easy is Paweł Oszczyk, a man whose wariness of self-serving stunts and the general limelight is notorious in the industry. But tough luck Paweł – when you’re this good at your job then the attention finds you. So it was at the end of 2015, when the Polish edition of the prestigious Gault&Millau guide singled him out as their Chef of the Year. To anyone familiar with his cooking, this came as no shock. Demonstratingflair, consistency and a brilliant eye for detail, Oszczyk’s name is synonymous with Poland’s culinary royalty.