NETJETS US VOLUME 9 2019

Roš and staff are a
study in concentration
as they prepare
another superlative dish
Facing page: inside
the intimate dining room
of Hiša Franko
her role in helping to secure the future of
the endangered marble trout, a fish that
features heavily on her menus, perhaps with
green peas and blackcurrants, served with a
sauce made from the trout’s fermented liver,
or with reduced whey (leftovers from the
cheese they make at Hiša Franko), puffed
buckwheat, scented geranium and mint. Her
“breakthrough” dish, created in 2006, was
a raviolo filled with liquid potato in trout
broth, with steamed trout and trout eggs.
Damming of rivers and the introduction
of brown trout to the Soča River had almost
wiped out the indigenous marble trout. “It’s a
beautiful story, a species that almost became
extinct, revived by dedicated local people. In
a way, it’s my story, too.”
She sounds a note of caution, however.
“There’s a place about 40km [24 miles]
from here where they grow rosa di Gorizia,
a special kind of radicchio that costs €35 a
kilo or even more. It takes almost two years
to produce, and there are only a few growers
left, either side of the Italian border.
“I talked to one of the older growers when
I was researching my book [Sun and Rain, to
be released later this year by Phaidon] and
he said, ‘I know lots of people want it, but I
think it won’t survive in time. Your generation
doesn’t have the patience to wait.’ ”
She is acutely aware that the homely
setting of Hiša Franko may not be quite
what her clientele expects. “Someone who
travels 8,000 kilometers [5,000 miles] to
dine with us shouldn’t expect it to be the
same as a meal in Barcelona or Paris. We
don’t serve lobster, caviar or foie gras, not
because I don’t like them—I could eat a
kilo of foie gras just with a piece of bread
—but because they don’t tell the story of
the restaurant and its location. And, for me,
food is all about storytelling.” hisafranko.com
SUZAN GABRIJAN, BENJAMIN SCHMUCK
Trieste Airport: 36miles/58km
63 NetJets