There’s a whisper in the dark : listen to the wind breathing her name between the trees. You’ll find her just there, across the spring source behind her inn. Or maybe by the lake, or on the mountain tops overlooking her home village of Kobarid. Ana Ros is a real Muse, a force of nature, the flashy incarnation of a cuisine blatantly challenging genres and expectations. Who would expect to find such a choreographer of instincts in the middle of this green, beautiful nowhere, pulsing at the core of Slovenian legends and traditions, just across the Italian border? Beware, thou who tread into Hisa Francko, her beautiful restaurant : once there, you might never leave her comfy country haven, off the course of time and let yourself plunge deep in the core of her imagination.

Just picture her in high heels or trekking shoes, her curly blond hair tied behind her neck, dealing with ancient savours and radiant dreams, gently extracting the smoked sweetness of a chubby trout, reinventing the violent myths of the Slovenian woods, transforming wild bear cheeks – everything she does comes from a heartfelt longing for a spiritual communion with Mother Nature. Part Ayaho Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke, part Isadora Duncan, Ana Ros is the best master cuisinière who has ever emerged from her rough, yet enchanting country. Wait until you taste her cheese stuffed lovage ravioli and you’ll be – like Valter, her companion for life – hooked for eternity.