Chefs And Champagne In Copenhagen

Dance the night away, or part of it, in Copenhagen’s former railway engine repair shed. Discopenhagen ended the annual rendezvous of food and hospitality-centric Relais & Chateaux. To the left, President of Relais & Chateaux, Laurent Gardinier, owner of Les Crayères in Champagne. On the right, Michael Caines, Michelin-starred chef and owner, inter alia, of Lympstone Manor, Devon.

Food Meets AI

Rendezvous’ business sessions identified the birth of new-wave Danish cuisine (NOMA’s co-founders worked with the Government from the start). A Paris-based marketing genius showed how AI can penetrate an entire online history and produce a bespoke menu in seconds. A long-ago post about surfing in Hawaii resulted in a seafood dish with two glasses of wine.

Zippy Bubbles 

There are vineyard Relais hotels in Napa Valley (Auberge du Soleil) and Priorat (Mas d’en Bruno, see ELF 32). At Cap Maison, St Lucia, call chilled Champagne to the beach – by zipline. Every major bubbly brand, incidentally, was in Copenhagen, eager to meet over 500 top hoteliers. There was also a Bernardaud, but no sign of Kering’s François-Henri Pinault – his family owns Ponant, the yachts with French je ne sais quoi that are also Relais. 

Losing It

Confused by choice? With Black Tomato’s Get Lost Service, you simply turn up at JFK or wherever your passport is handy at an appointed time. Perhaps Cairo’s riveting Egyptian Museum for the past (or Dubai’s Museum of the Future for to come). Thanks to AI, terrific travel consultants can do more exactly than ever. Now, can it say which footwear brand is best for the six-hour return trek to Bhutan’s Tiger’s Nest?