Chef Petra Kapetanović Orlić, Slovenia

Peti 181 Restaurant, Ljubljana – 2 toques Gault&Millau (14/20)

This young and innovative Slovenian chef comes from a hospitality family – yet gastronomy was not her first choice. She finished a design course in Milan, followed by management in Barcelona, and in 2015 she started two businesses – the Groove design studio and Peti 181 restaurant in the centre of Ljubljana. Since she loves Dalmatia, where her family has origins, her dishes often include fish and seafood. Sea bass carpaccio, fresh scallop and langoustine are the stars in her kitchen, and her homemade ravioli 181 with egg yolk, truffle cream and fish roe are beyond comparison in the whole of Slovenia.

“As in design, the main goal in hospitality is pleasure, the feeling that somebody is creating something for you. It is a game of giving and receiving, and I believe that food shouldn’t be there just to relieve hunger, but to enhance the pleasure of socializing around the table”, says Petra.

Her creative nature always pushes her away from everyday routine and that’s why she doesn’t follow strict rules in the kitchen. She draws inspiration from the spirit caught between the Mediterranean and the Alps, between the Slavic world in the east and the Romanic one in the west.