My Old Man by Mac DeMarco plays in the background as Topher Boehm adjusts his seat to catch the last rays of the afternoon sunshine. Tucked away in Sydney’s Marrickville among the warehouses, repair shops, and vast industrial spaces is his brewery, Wildflower Brewing & Blending.

Views of the French Riviera, several levels of vegetable gardens baring the freshest produce and a chef who has worked in Paris with Alain Passard at Arpège and Alain Ducasse at Hotel Plaza Athénée combine to make Mirazur the ultimate restaurant experience.

In most countries, whether for indulgence, hobby or economic value, wine is part of life. It is also an agricultural product significantly at risk from climate change. Four winemakers share how they are dealing with the increasingly unpredictable seasons.

From craft beer to vegan wines, consumers are changing their focus once again and the demand now calls for an even healthier alternative: ‘nolo’ aka no- and low-alcoholic beverages.

Top restaurants around the world have had to close their doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic but many are diversifying in the fight to keep their industry alive.

Deepak Ohri had an idea. He wanted to create a vertical destination – a high-rise collection of hotspots under one roof – for ultra-wealthy patrons. His vision would be located right in the centre of Bangkok. “Creating a destination for the 1% was my dream,” the lebua Hotels & Resorts Founder and CEO confirms.

The Australian distilling industry is going through times of growth, change and self-discovery; from using native Australian ingredients to testing the waters with unique blending methods.

The Russian Romantic poet Aleksandr Pushkin described the imperial city as a “northern prodigy” that put “ancient Moscow in the shade”. For many years, St Petersburg has been a muse for writers such as Dostoyevsky, Chekhov and Mandelstam.

While New York City is known for its hustle and bustle; Upstate New York is a destination for fine cuisine, wineries and most importantly, slowing down. Just outside of Manhattan, Long Island offers white-sand beaches, deep-sea fishing, surf breaks and is home to a range of world-class wineries and top-rated restaurants.

“If you cut me, I bleed ‘maker’”, says David Begg, Founder of Real Kombucha. “I have spent my whole life making, whether it be from wood and metal as a child, to studying engineering at university, building businesses over the past 20 years as well as designing and building our first brewery.”

“It goes to show what’s possible,” says Lennox Hastie, the 2020 Citi Chef of the Year, who won the accolade for Sydney’s Firedoor earlier this month. Based in Surry Hills, Lennox’s kitchen, with no power or gas, is fuelled only by fire. The restaurant he owns and operates in partnership with Fink Group is setting new standards of cooking through originality and locality.

It all started in 1996. It was the year of the first Australian Grand Prix held in Melbourne and Kate Reid, together with her brother Cameron, was to watch the much-anticipated motorsport race. The annual ritual would influence Kate Reid to become an aerodynamic engineer for Williams F1 and, further down the road, open what is now dubbed the “world’s best croissanterie”.

Each Black Sheep restaurant is described as “a window into a specific time, place and cuisine”. From the street corners of Hanoi to the train station in Florence or the equestrian clubs of Argentina, each concept is developed from a historical point of view and articulated through food, design, music and art.

Women in Hospitality (WOHO) was founded in 2016 by Resy General Manager Julia Campbell after experiencing the value of community through her involvement in the not-for-profit group, Women Chefs and Restaurateurs in New York.

On 5 September, 2018, Californian-born Jane Lopes was finally able to include the letters MS, Master Sommelier, after her name. She was the sixth person – and the lone woman – in Australia to pass the Master Sommelier (MS) exam.

Natural, organic, vegan – ethical Australian winemakers are taking the world by storm.

A simple tool used to cut food and enhance flavour is as part of a chef as their own hand; but knives also have a story of their own, writes Anastasia Prikhodko.

Russian staple dishes of borscht, caviar and pierogi have long been discussed, tried and tested. Yet there is much more to the vast nation, with pockets of it remaining unexplored and untouched, including Russia’s Far East.

Woy Woy was one of the first places connected to Sydney by railway, which turned it into a popular tourist and fishing destination from the late 1930s. There was even a film made about it, which rather ambitiously pitched the town as “the Venice of Australia”.

Pork it - page 12; New pathways - page 16; In for the long haul - page 24; Milk with a twist - page 34.