News

LYNN CRAWFORD

EXECUTIVE CHEF

I went to Portugal with some friends a couple of summers ago. What was so memorable about that trip was that we're all foodies, and we're really spontaneous. We just grabbed our Lonely Planet and our road map and we took off to the Algarve. We hit the coast and it was like nothing I've ever experienced in my life, it was absolutely stunning. There's a little town called Carvoeiro, which is a little seaside town, tiny, tiny, an intimate fishing village nestled in big huge white cliffs. The beaches were pure. The water was pristine. And it's all about the chicken piri-piri, the olive oil and the fresh sea salt that you sprinkle on top – it was like the best chicken I've had. For me, cooking has to be real. And it has to be very pure and delicious. I try to source out the best flavours and ingredients from different areas that I've travelled and make recipes. But how can you replicate that chicken piri-piri, when the waves are crashing, and the sun is shining, and you're out sipping sangria? That's the quest for you, always trying to capture that moment one more time.

Lynn Crawford is the executive chef at Four Seasons in New York.

TARAS GRESCOE

TRAVEL WRITER

The experience that comes to mind immediately happened in the late 1990s. I had lived in Paris for four years so I was used to seeing magnificent displays of oysters. But seafood everywhere was hideously expensive and I was an English teacher, so it was always out of reach.

But I went to this great little town called Cancale in Brittany and it turns out they have the equivalent of a farmer's market for fisherman right on the wharf – and they had some of the best oysters in France, called Belons.

They've almost disappeared because of overfishing, but they're famous for their flat shells, the big chunky ones, and the incredibly sweet hazelnut-flavoured flesh inside. You can still find them in Brittany and the great thing was it was super-cheap – less than $4 or $5 for a dozen. You pay $8 a pop for them in Paris now.

So this rough-looking oyster guy shucks them right in front of you and hands them to you on a plastic plate with a quarter of a roughly cut lemon. I sat with my legs dangling over the seawall next to a lighthouse, with the waves of the Atlantic coming in, and devoured these oysters, which indeed have this crazy nutty taste. After you're done, you just toss the shells next to the seawall onto this ever-growing mound that looks like it had been there forever.

It was super-cheap, super-satisfying. And eating seafood in the place that it was caught really connects you to the place. You know, every oyster picks up the taste of its particular patch of ocean.

Taras Gescoe is the author of Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood.

LINDA LUNDSTROM

FASHION DESIGNER

I'm going to have to talk about Paris. I go there at least once or twice a year. Basically, I'm going over there at that time anyway, to buy fabric for my fall collection, but for the last eight years I've taken a group with me as part of a special tour.

One of the highlights for me, and for my guests, is a picnic. And I have literally fed 25 people for $50. So you go and get an excellent bottle of wine in a grocery store or in a cheese shop for like $11. You go to a charcuterie store and buy foie gras. And you get your baguette fresh. And then what I do is go to a hardware store and get these great big terra cotta things you put under a plant, it's like $3, and that becomes my platter for all of my fresh-cut vegetables, right? And Parisians are so into picnics that they actually have picnic-table tablecloths. You buy a great big roll. It's basically paper, but they have damask patterns, and they have gingham patterns, all with matching serviettes.

You know, it's a very sensual thing to be eating outside. And there's a sort of an abundance at a picnic that you don't get with a single plate of food at a restaurant. It's all so easy. Every hotel has a sink and you can wash the vegetables.

Linda Lundstrom's next tour runs Sept. 21-28. For details, visit www.lindalundstrom.com.

YVAN PEDNEAULT

STAGE ACTOR

Walking is free and my best memories from Europe are of walking. One night, a friend and I just walked around Paris. I was touring with the show and I think it was in February and it was quite chilly outside, but we didn't mind. We got some hot chocolate. The hot chocolate in Paris is so good. Paris was so beautiful. You don't need a guide or a cab there. We just walked and walked for about four hours. We walked to the Louvre and we walked to the Pont de l'Alma tunnel where Lady Diana died, and we saw the bridges over the Seine River all lit up. We went up the Eiffel Tower, which has been lit up every hour of darkness since 2000. Maybe it was just our mood or the charm of Paris, but it was very special.

Yvan Pedneault will be the lead in the musical We Will Rock You, starting its second run in Toronto this July.

DEBBIE TRAVIS

DECORATOR/TV HOST

There's a series of books by Alasdair Sawday on B&Bs around the world – and the Italian one is quite brilliant. A B&B in North America is like some horrible little room with quilts and frilly curtains. But in Italy they're different. They're called agriturismos and they can be in a monastery, in an old cathedral, in a 15th-century farm. You can stay in some of these for $40 a night. And they're way more fun than a hotel. They're often quite basic, but they're spotlessly clean and it's an amazing way to see Italy. I've stayed in them many, many times. One in Cinque Terre was fantastic. It's one of those things where you drive up and you don't know if you're getting some motley little thing – when you book something you're never quite sure what you get, it has nothing to do with money – and you get there and there is this chateau and it's like $80 a night. You're sleeping in a room with hand-painted frescoes all over the walls, with a four-poster bed. I had my son with me because he lost his passport, so he ended up ruining our romantic weekend, sleeping at the bottom of the bed. [Laughs.] But anyone can go to a four-star hotel. Part of the excitement of travel is when you really work it, the planning of it.

Debbie Travis is the host of Painted House.

SIMON WINCHESTER

WRITER

I remember vividly going to see the Shakespeare theatre on Stratford-upon-Avon a long time ago, 1959 or something, and sleeping on the steps at night to get really, really cheap tickets the following day. It was extremely cold and miserable. We were too young to drink to keep warm. We'd find a girl, a local. It would all be perfectly respectable, but we would just snuggle and keep warm. Still, I'd wake up stiff as a board. But it was worth it. I mean this is where Shakespeare was born. You're going to the holy of holies and it's worth making a big effort. I wouldn't do it to see The Lion King. But it's not nearly as easy to do that as it used to be. Britain is so wrapped up in cotton wool these days that even things that don't sound at all risky to me are frowned upon.

Simon Winchester writes on history, travel and ideas. His most recent book is The Man Who Loved China.