Food

10 BEAUTIFUL PLACES TO FEED A BEAUTIFUL MOTHER NOW

Courtesy of Sepia Restaurant. Dish by Chef Martin Benn.

Yes, we know we usually think of the most beautiful special places to celebrate beautiful mothers on Mother’s Day, and we know it would be great to celebrate them more often than that. Well, we can keep you celebrating for 10 days at least, with our curated-for-beauty collection of 10 restaurants that are each a reason to celebrate on its own.

1. SEPIA -- SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

Sepia is one of the most creative restaurants ever. It is the creative collaboration between a renowned seafood purveyor George Costi, of De Costi Seafoods, and award winning Chef Martin Benn. Seafood is its focus, along with fresh seasonal produce.

Their food is not only exceptional in quality and execution, but it will surprise and delight your mother, you, and anyone else you bring with genius ideas and stunningly beautiful presentations.

Sydney Morning Herald restaurant critic Terry Durack describes the cuisine as: "smoky, sweet, crunchy, creamy, soft, gentle, toasty, scented, clear, brothy, earthy, floral. The focus is on texture and contrast even more than taste - there's always a crunch, always a cream. It's like the love-child of Tetsuya Wakuda and Rene Redzepi of Noma; a Nordic kaiseki.”

2. MAURICE: A PASTRY LUNCHEONETTE -- PORTLAND, OREGON

The whole idea of a pastry luncheonette rides is a bit bipolar. It’s fancy, yet not. It’s dessert, yet it’s a meal. It’s old-fashioned, yet it’s uber modern. And, in the case of Maurice, it’s a beautiful winner.

Maurice is the fairly recent brainchild and passion of Kristen D. Murray, a southern California girl who grew up on fresh local fruits and veggies and her grandmother’s baking. She grew into a seriously talented chef. And she named the restaurant after her beloved French lop rabbit.

The food is gorgeous. All around. And really, who ever heard of a luncheonette that rocks an amazing selection of vermouths and an eclectic wine cellar, like Maurice does?

Maurice was named one of Bon Appétit Magazine’s Top 10 Best New Restaurants in America 2014.

3. NOBU

We’ve been to Nobu many times already in the past 20 years since it first opened, both in New York, where our HQ is, and in London, where we also work. It is an old favorite, but it never gets old. And there is something beautiful and comforting about that. So, it’s a great place to celebrate someone else you you know and love, like a mother.

Chef Nobu Matsuhisa was the first to put Black Cod with Miso on the map.

It’s a bright and beautiful dish, with it’s careful flavor balances, crisp and silky textures, served on a banana leaf and topped with a sleek shoot of pink-and-white hajikami ginger. And though it is now copied round the world, in many fine Asian restaurants, nobody else makes it quite as magnificently as Nobu does -- to this day.

4. OYAMEL COCINA MEXICANA -- WASHINGTON, DC

Oyamel Cocina Mexicana is both beautiful and fun place to celebrate a mother. Chef José Andrés, produces multicultural Mexican magic there.

You’ll find a spectacular show of antojitos -- a Mexican answer to tapas -- and a wicked tequila and mezcal menu. Oyamel’s excellent margaritas may you be brave enough to try the Chapulines tacos made with sauteed grasshoppers, an Oaxacan specialty.

If not, "Gaspacho estilo Morelia", a salad of seasonal fruit, jicama root, cucumbers, queso fresco and chile pequín, from the historic city of Morelia, is sure to please her.

5. GRACE -- CHICAGO

Grace -- is full of Grace. Award-winning, Michelin-starred chef Curtis Duffy, formerly of Charlie Trotter’s, Trio, Alinea, and Avenues delivers nightly all-star performances.

Each dish is an interesting sculpture, that plays with space before it dances in your mouth.

Grace touts Three Michelin Stars in the Chicago 2015 Guide, AAA's Five Diamond Rating, and Robb Report's Best Restaurant in the World 2013.

6. LA MER -- OAHU, HAWAII

Like a French Polynesian culinary paradise, La Mer is transportive. You’ll be torn when you gaze down at your plate. It will be too beautiful eat. But you won’t want to wait to dive into the fresh tropical flavors.

La Mer has recently been awarded a five-star designation by Forbes Travel Guide, and has long been a AAA 5 Diamond Restaurant.

7. SPAGO -- LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

Spago, Los Angeles, the most beautiful gatherings of California’s local farmers' markets are artfully arranged on this Kamachi by chef Tetsu Yahagi. Farmers' Market Vegetable Plate, Wild Mushroom Vinaigrette, Herb Coulis, Tuscan Kale Chips is way more stellar than it sounds. Remember when mother told you to eat your vegetables? Tell her, you’re ready.

8. JUNIPER & IVY -- SAN DIEGO, CA

Richard Blais, winner of “Top Chef: All-Stars,” has a beautiful sense of humor, which he plays out, with aplomb, at San Diego’s Juniper & Ivy. You might call it whimsy. But it is very seriously delicious. Take his signature Yodel, a play on that guilty pleasure childhood snack.

There is nothing childish about it. Just ask your mother after she takes a bite.

9. VAN ZELLER -- HARROGATE, UNITED KINGDOM

Award winning chef, Tom Van Zeller makes pretty plates. His tiny restaurant is a jewel box in the most unlikely place -- in a little village in the middle of North Yorkshire.

You might think he is a painter, the way he composes his dishes, creating pictures, arranging each edible element with tweezer-placed-perfection. Delicate, yes, but you can taste the power of his genius.

Cool cucumber granita pops against shards of charred asparagus, and wispy crispy onion rings -- and even describing it with words seems so silly. Van Zeller takes every dish to its culinary and aesthetic max.

10. 610 MAGNOLIA -- LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY

610 Magnolia, in Louisville, Kentucky is where chef Ed Lee takes humble Midwestern farm ingredients, like corn and homemade buttermilk, and turns them into fantasies --- Corn Soup is like a Michelangelo study in corn, flecked with green pumpkin seed oil and accented with corn gel, dried corn silk, and popcorn shoots. Definitely not like mom used to make.

Read more about Beautiful Motherhood, as it relates to Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact including 10 Beautiful Books on the Beauty of Mothers Now and Beautiful News About Animal Mothers Now.

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IMAGE CREDITS:

Image: Courtesy of Sepia Restaurant. Dish by Chef Martin Benn.
Image: Courtesy of Sepia Restaurant.
Photo: by Eva Kolenko. Courtesy of Maurice Pastry Luncheonette. Anise Seed Almond Meringues.
Image: Courtesy of Nobu. Miso Cod.
Image: Courtesy of Oyamel Cocina Mexicana. “Gaspacho estilo Morelia.”
Image: Courtesy of Grace Restaurant.
Image: Courtesy of La Mer Restaurant at Halekulani. Seafood Salad.
Image: by Rodolfo Carlos for Spago. Farmers' Market Vegetable Plate, Wild Mushroom Vinaigrette, Herb Coulis, Tuscan Kale Chips.
Image: Courtesy of Juniper & Ivy. Yodel Devil’s Cake/White Chocolate/Hazelnut Brittle/Hot Chocolate.
Image: Courtesy of Van Zeller Restaurant.
Image: by Dan Dry. Courtesy of 610 Magnolia. Corn Soup.
Photo: Courtesy of 610 Magnolia.
Photo: Courtesy of Van Zeller.