JOIN the AFICIONADOS
Get the insider news and lowdown on what we've been up to, where we've been, and who we've met along the way. Be the first to discover new places and get the scoop on our favourites.
There are chefs who cook for accolades, and there are chefs who cook because they cannot imagine doing anything else. Patrick Tober, Head Chef of Hotel Arlberg in Lech am Arlberg, Austria, has always been firmly in the second camp. Which is perhaps exactly why the accolades have followed anyway. In 2026, his flagship Italian fine-dining restaurant, La Fenice, was awarded one Michelin star in the Michelin Guide 2026, confirming what those who have eaten there have known for some time.
Tober has been the culinary force behind Hotel Arlberg for fifteen years, overseeing four distinct dining spaces at one of Austria's most celebrated luxury hotels: Michelin-starred La Fenice, the fondue-focused Stube, the hotel's elegant main Restaurant, and the Alpine-Mediterranean Sun Terrace. To do this with the quiet confidence he does, at an age still in his mid-thirties, is no small thing.
His story begins not in a professional kitchen but on a family farm in Mühlviertel, Upper Austria. Growing up close to the land gave Tober something no culinary school can teach: an instinctive understanding of seasons, provenance and the honest relationship between soil and plate. The sweet tooth came early too. He originally set his sights on becoming a confectioner, fondly recalling childhood birthday cakes decorated with marzipan figures. The pastry counter's loss has been Lech's considerable gain.
La Fenice is where Tober's ambitions are most fully realised, and where the Michelin Guide 2026 has placed its star. Italian cuisine in the Alps might raise an eyebrow, but in Tober's hands, the combination feels not only natural but inevitable. The restaurant's philosophy of monte e mare draws on mountain and sea in equal measure, with a tasting menu of five to eight courses, available in vegetarian form, that changes with the seasons and surprises at every turn.
This is not Italian food in any imitative sense. Tober takes the simplicity of the Italian canon as a starting point and refines it with a fine-dining intelligence that elevates familiar classics without erasing what made them beloved in the first place. Nonna's recipes, yes, but reframed with precision, photogenic presentation and a lightness of touch that keeps the focus squarely on flavour. The Michelin star is the formal acknowledgement of what guests at Hotel Arlberg have been quietly telling each other for years.
The award belongs to the whole team. Restaurant Manager Sebastian Elles and F&B Director Valentin Eberle have been integral to building the front-of-house excellence that a Michelin star demands. Great kitchens, as Tober knows well, are never the work of one person.
Step out of La Fenice and into the Stube, and the register shifts entirely without the quality dropping a beat. Here, Tober has reimagined the fondue for a new generation of alpine dining, building a dedicated menu around this most convivial of mountain rituals. A Schnitzel Fondue sits alongside a Wagyu Beef variation with more than a hint of Shabu Shabu. It is exactly the kind of cooking that makes a cold evening in Lech feel like the finest place in the world to be.
During the hotel's off-season, Tober travels. Farmers markets in Portugal, family-run restaurants in Italy and Spain, olive oil harvests, winemakers, the occasional truffle hunt. He knocks on kitchen doors and offers a hand. He listens. He brings it all back to Lech.
'I travel a lot when the hotel is closed, mostly discovering farmers markets and family-run restaurants in Italy, Portugal or Spain,' he says. 'Everyone brings something to the table.'
That collaborative instinct runs through everything at Hotel Arlberg's kitchens. Family recipes are shared around the team when new menus are being discussed. The result is cooking that feels both deeply personal and genuinely open to the world.
His approach to Austrian cuisine is equally thoughtful. Rather than defaulting to the hearty, heavy register that alpine food can sometimes fall into, Tober seeks balance. He will transform a Knödel, champion farm vegetables as a main event, but he also understands that after a day on the slopes of Lech am Arlberg, sometimes a guest simply needs something deeply, honestly satisfying.
With a Michelin star now firmly on the map, Hotel Arlberg takes its place among the great culinary destinations of the Austrian Alps. For those who have been making the pilgrimage to Lech for years, the recognition simply confirms what they already knew. For those yet to visit, consider this the prompt you have been waiting for.
Patrick Tober cooks with the kind of authenticity and intelligence that cannot be manufactured. Fifteen years in, one Michelin star later, he remains exactly where he should be: at the heart of one of Austria's most extraordinary hotels, doing what he has always done, only better.
Alessandro Parisi is a true foodie, and Italy's culinary culture runs deep through his kitchen soul. Born in Naples, Alessandro Parisi is, since 2016, at the epicurean helm on Lake Como's shores at the Filario Hotel & Residences in Lezzeno.
read more
Marc Bernhart is the chef at the Weisses Kreuz Hotel in Burgeis, South Tyrol - a hip maverick who casts his flavour nets both close to home as well as wide.
read more
Chef Jonathan Burger, awarded the Michelin Green Star, is the likeable maverick behind the stoves at the legendary Hirschen in Schwarzenberg, a place that traces its hospitality roots back to 1755.
read more
Michelin-starred Osip in Bruton, Somerset, from chef Merlin Labron-Johnson, pairs farm-to-fork dining with boutique rooms. A soulful retreat where food, design and Somerset terroir create a singular cultural escape.
Gothenburg's foodie scene has sprung up to international attention in the last few years - check out this guide for the best on Sweden's cosy 'Little London' coast.
read more
Albin Widmann is Chef at the Seehotel Ambach, the cult lakeside refuge on Caldaro Lake's shores in South Tyrol. Dramatic nature, funky interiors, and an architectural landmark are also a famed bolthole for good food connoisseurs.
read more
A slow-food philosophy that Chef Massimo Geromel describes as 'keeping things simple, pure and rooted', he presides over the culinary realms of the MIRAMONTI, a style hotel and spa destination in Avelengo/Hafling, South Tyrol/Alto Adige.
read more
Food is high on this region's agenda, also known as the Garden of the Alps - the cuisine is a menagerie of hearty Laden Alpine dishes, Italian classics and lightness from the Mediterranean. It is not Italian nor Austrian; it is an epicurean marriage that occasionally dips into Hungary.
read more
From Burgenland to Vienna, Taubenkobel’s VOGELFREI lands at Atelier Augarten, where Barbara Eselböck and Alain Weissgerber craft a poetic union of food, art and unbound culinary freedom.
read more
Step into a tale of timeless charm and fresh flavours. Luna Restaurant promises culinary magic, where centuries-old heritage meets bold Italian cuisine crafted for today’s tastes.
read more
The Roca brothers of the world-renowned El Celler de Can Roca, have collaborated with The Macallan to unveil TimeSpirit, a unique culinary experience celebrating 200 years of the iconic whisky distillery.
read more
Robert De Niro and Chef Andrew Carmellini team up again to bring iconic Italian flavours to Hudson Yards in thier second outpost of unforgettable dishes and sleek design.
read more
Get the insider news and lowdown on what we've been up to, where we've been, and who we've met along the way. Be the first to discover new places and get the scoop on our favourites.