SLOVENIA

From Maribor in the east to the chocolate-loving town of Radovljica in the west, a trip across northern Slovenia reveals a bucolic landscape, hearty, traditional dishes and world-class sweet wine

- JAMES MARCH

“Is there anyone from Sweden here?” asks chef David Vračko, sending a wave of nervous laughter and puzzled looks across the dining room. A few minutes later, he returns carrying a single speaker and places it on a small table in the middle of the room. The thumping piano and chanting vocals of Abba’s ‘Chiquitita’ soon fills the room as silky banana sorbets are dutifully served by waiters, who file in to the beat of the music.

This culinary spectacle is taking place at Vračko’s restaurant, Mak, located on an unassuming, low-lit street corner in Maribor in northeastern Slovenia. We’re three hours into the meal and only now is dessert being served.

Bearded, with long, brown, tied-back hair and a faded blue towel over his shoulder at all times, Vračko cuts something of a dishevelled figure. After spending 10 years learning his trade abroad, he returned to Maribor in 2011 to open Mak, which has since won several awards, including the Michelin plate.

“Don’t be afraid, I’ll explain everything,” he’d said earlier with a grin when I was presented with a fiery chunk of salami balanced precariously on a skinny, foot-high breadstick. Shortly afterwards, he returned wielding a blowtorch before charring the meat with a satisfying blast.

Vračko’s theatrical and undeniably entertaining take on fine dining is a capricious finale to my 100-mile journey east across Slovenia’s north, a compact yet cinematic landscape of wide plateaus, swaying wheat fields, yawning green valleys and densely forested mountains.