The food? Chef's kiss

Bjorn Frantzen is beating his own records and now holds three Michelin stars each in Stockholm, Dubai and Singapore. How does he do it?

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Which is the most critically respected and awarded restaurant in the world today? Okay, I concede that there are many ways of measuring critical acclaim, and these days, the international restaurant world has more awards than McDonald's has French fries.

But there is one measure of quality that most chefs will tell you they respect: They may not always agree with the Michelin guide's opinions, but they admire the gravity and the integrity of the process that goes into the awarding of stars. This is one kind of recognition you can't buy. It doesn’t depend on how many influencers you feed or how many critics you pay off. The guide relies on anonymous but highly trained and experienced inspectors, whose opinions (at least on Japanese and Western cuisines) are widely respected.

And according to Michelin, the world’s best restaurant (and consequently, the world’s best chef) is one you have probably never heard of, and certainly is not a household name outside of foodie households.

It is called Restaurant Frantzen and is in Stockholm in Sweden. The chef is a former professional football player called Bjorn Frantzen, who looks a little like James Bond might have if he had been born and brought up in Scandinavia. And the reason you haven't heard of him is because he avoids personal publicity and refuses to play the influencer game.

But here are the facts, Frantzen in Stockholm has three Michelin stars, the first restaurant in Sweden to win the highest ranking possible. Some years ago, Frantzen opened Zen in Singapore, a market that is as different from Stockholm as is possible to imagine. Zen won three stars too, putting Frantzen in that tiny club that only a few chefs — like Alain Ducasse and Thomas Keller—have ever been allowed to join. With two three-star restaurants at different ends of the world, Frantzen was already a phenomenon when he was invited by Dubai’s Atlantis to open another Frantzen there last year.