Bubbling under, boiling over

The year's best food yet, from Bandra to Seoul, from old names and new, from starters to afters

- VIR SANGHVI

I used to do an annual round up of the best meals I had eaten in the year. The list got so long that I started doing two versions. This is the first of 2024.

Granite, Paris

It has been called the hottest restaurant in Paris. The chef, Tom Meyer, has only just turned 30 so it is the kind of place that only Parisian foodies know about. It was chosen for our lunch by Elisabeth Boucher-Anselin of Michelin and because her boss Gwendal Poullennec had a post-lunch meeting, we pushed the chef to serve the multi-course lunch as soon as possible. Not only did his food come quickly, it was outstanding. The restaurant has one Michelin star and very little international fame.

I am guessing both will change soon enough.

Alain Ducasse at Le Meurice, Paris

I was taken here by the elegant and wise Emmanuelle Perrier, the backbone of the Alain Ducasse empire, and she arranged for us to have a drink with Amaury Bouhours, the chef, before /dinner. The food was everything you would expect of a top-class Ducasse restaurant. Bonhours is, in many ways, the culinary heir to the Ducasse tradition. If you can only eat one great meal at a grand restaurant in Paris, this is the place to go.

Papa's, Mumbai