Chef Brent Savage samples barefoot luxury on a very special island, and it’s heaven on earth.
Over the past 12 incredible months, before the pandemic, my business partner Nick Hildebrandt and I have travelled to the Maldives to collaborate with the five-star One&Only Reethi Rah on a series of unique events, and then to relaunch one of the hotel’s restaurants Botanica.
The signature garden-to-table restaurant boasts a menu featuring produce grown in the chef’s garden and seafood caught locally. Set on one of the North Malé Atoll’s largest islands One&Only Reethi Rah is a stunning resort, offering second-to-none facilities and restaurants that are just as outstanding. A trip to a nearby sandbank had us feeling like we had the whole island to ourselves.
It’s definitely worth doing if you’re lucky enough to visit this beautiful part of the world.
When it comes to food, there’s one dish you simply must have – Maldivian lobster. They are harvested by hand by the locals and are just fantastic. I find these lobsters have a distinct flavour of the sea – like no other I’ve experienced – and cooking them over a charcoal grill brings out the best in them.
And as for restaurant offerings on the island, I’m obviously biased towards the One&Only venues. But The Ledge by Dave Pynt is worth a day trip to experience what Pynt brings to his award-winning restaurant Burnt Ends in Singapore.
I’ve never seen water as beautiful as in the Maldives, so if you want to see the reefs and sea life up close, scuba diving and snorkelling are the way to go.
The magic of the Maldives is like travelling to another world – it’s exactly what you imagine paradise to be.
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