where the CHEFS EAT

If you want to know where to get a great meal anywhere in the world, talk to the people who cook the food. We've asked some of the planet's best-known culinary personalities about their favorite restaurants and dishes in their hometowns and the cities they love visiting. From unforgettable tasting menus to mouthwatering street eats, this is your guide to expert dining in Tokyo, Los Angeles, and beyond

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Kuy teav, a shrimp and pork noodle soup served at the Cambodian restaurant Lunette in San Francisco

Eric Ripert on SEOUL

Eric Ripert, the owner of Le Bernardin, the legendary French seafood restaurant in Manhattan, is known almost as much for his globe-trotting as he is for his cooking. And the one city he keeps going back to? Seoul. “It’s a city of contrast,” he says. “You have super-high-energy restaurants that are very edgy sitting side by side with peaceful tea houses. Locals work hard and play hard, and that manifests in its dining scene.” After dropping his luggage at the Grand Hyatt Seoul, Ripert always walks to Byeokje Galbi in Songpa, where “grandma is doing the cooking.” The meal starts with makgeolli to drink, then “a lot of offal to grill.” Mingles in Gangnam, from chef Mingoo Kang, is a three-Michelin-star experience with “really, really creative” dishes that bridge Western and Korean expectations—and was “maybe the best meal I [have] had in a restaurant in Seoul,” Ripert says. His favorite dish in the city, though, is yangnyeom gejang, or marinated crab, at Hwa Hae Dang in Yeongdeungpo: “It’s very difficult to find, and you have to reserve [a table] way in advance, and really, only locals know about it. You go there, eat your crab, and leave.” When it’s time to escape the city, it's off to Jingwansa, a temple in the midst of a national park overlooking Seoul, for fare prepared by nuns that emphasizes fermentation and excludes five allium plants, in keeping with philosophical principles: “The mountains are gorgeous, and you just eat, eat, and eat while looking at them.”

Osteria e Vecchi Sapori Florence

Nancy Silverton on TUSCANY