Try "Saint-Tropez", "Positano", "truffle" or "Cyprus".
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From the truffles of Alba to the tagines of Marrakech: the cooking of every country around the sea, and where to taste it at its finest.
At the table
Olive oil, bread and wine, fish from the sea, vegetables and herbs from the hills: the foundations are shared, and the Mediterranean diet is on UNESCO's list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Yet every country, and often every valley, cooks in its own way.
Here is the cooking of each country in a few lines, with links to its history and culture page and, where they exist, to the finest tables we list. For the restaurants themselves, see our lists below.
Cuisine
Portuguese cooking is built on the Atlantic: grilled sardines and sea bream, rice with seafood, and salt cod, said to have a recipe for every day of the year. The custard tart, pastel de nata, is a Lisbon institution, and the Alentejo gives black pork, cork-oak country and robust reds. Great tables: Belcanto, Vila Joya, Ocean.
Spain eats late and well. Jamón ibérico, paella from Valencia, gazpacho from Andalusia and the small plates of tapas are known everywhere, and the country's creative chefs changed modern cooking. Great tables: DiverXO, Aponiente, Quique Dacosta.
Gibraltar's table is a mix of Mediterranean influences. Its best-loved dish is calentita, a baked chickpea-flour cake brought by Genoese settlers, and rosto, pasta in a tomato and beef sauce, shows the same Italian roots.
The cooking of the south is olive oil, garlic, herbs and the sea: bouillabaisse in Marseille, socca and salade niçoise in Nice, ratatouille and pistou in Provence. Provence rosé is drunk all summer; Bandol and Châteauneuf-du-Pape are its serious wines. Great tables: Le Petit Nice, L'Oustau de Baumanière, La Vague d'Or.
Monaco's own dishes are those of the Riviera: barbagiuan, small fried pastries of chard and ricotta, eaten on the National Day, and stocafi, dried cod stewed with tomatoes and olives. Its tables are among the most famous in the world. Great tables: Le Louis XV-Alain Ducasse, Les Ambassadeurs by Christophe Cussac.
There is no single Italian cuisine, only regional ones. Piedmont has the white truffles of Alba and the wines of Barolo; Emilia-Romagna has Parmigiano Reggiano, prosciutto di Parma and the balsamic vinegar of Modena; Tuscany has Chianti and Brunello; Naples has pizza, its art of the pizzaiuolo recognised by UNESCO; Sicily has Arab-inspired sweets and Etna wines. Great tables: Osteria Francescana, Piazza Duomo, Dal Pescatore.
Maltese cooking is Sicilian, Arab and British at once: rabbit stew, the national dish; pastizzi, flaky ricotta pastries; lampuki pie in autumn; and ftira, the ring-shaped sourdough bread recognised by UNESCO as intangible heritage. Gozo is known for its sheep's cheese and its wines. Great tables: ION Harbour by Simon Rogan.
Cuisine
Slovenia cooks with Alpine, Italian and Hungarian accents. Karst ham and the red teran wine, sea salt from Piran, buckwheat, the walnut roll called potica and the white wines of Goriška Brda are its signatures. Great tables: Hiša Franko.
Croatia's coast cooks simply and superbly: Adriatic fish grilled over wood, oysters from Ston, lamb and octopus slow-cooked under the iron bell of the peka, Dalmatian ham and olive oil. Istria has white truffles in autumn and fine Malvazija; the south has the red Plavac Mali. Great tables: Agli Amici Rovinj.
Bosnian food is generous and slow: ćevapi grilled in Sarajevo's old town, burek and other pies, stuffed vegetables, and coffee served in a copper džezva with Turkish delight. Herzegovina, around Mostar, makes white Žilavka and red Blatina wines.
From the village of Njeguši, below Lovćen, come air-dried ham and cheese; from the vineyards around Lake Skadar comes Vranac, the deep red native grape. On the bay, the table is grilled fish, mussels and olive oil.
Albanian cooking is Ionian and mountain at once: fish and mussels on the riviera, lamb roasted with herbs, byrek pies, and tavë kosi, lamb baked in yoghurt, the national dish. Olive oil, figs and mountain tea come from the slopes above the sea.
Greek cooking rests on olive oil, bread, wine and the sea. Grilled fish, slow-cooked lamb, feta and the many small plates of a meze table are made with island herbs and lemons. Great tables: Delta.
Cuisine
Turkish cooking descends from the palace kitchens of the Ottomans: meze, olive-oil vegetables of the Aegean, kebabs from the south-east, pilafs, baklava and Turkish delight. Breakfast is a feast of its own, and coffee and tea are rituals. Great tables: TURK Fatih Tutak, Vino Locale.
Cypriot cooking is a long meze: halloumi grilled or fresh, souvla roasted over charcoal, kleftiko lamb from the clay oven, olives, village bread and fruit. Commandaria, the sweet wine of the Troodos foothills, is one of the oldest named wines in the world.
The cooking of Damascus and Aleppo, famed for kibbeh, mezze and pastries, is among the most refined of the Levant.
Mezze culture at its most generous: tabbouleh, hummus, kibbeh, grilled fish and the wines of the Beqaa Valley.
Israel's food is a meeting of the Mediterranean and many diasporas: hummus, salads, grilled fish, breads from every tradition and a market culture built on superb produce. Tel Aviv has a lively chef-led restaurant scene, and wineries in the Galilee and the Judean Hills make serious wines.
Cuisine
Egyptian food is the food of the Nile valley: ful medames of slow-cooked beans, koshari of rice, lentils and pasta, green molokhia, stuffed pigeon, grilled fish in Alexandria and sweet om ali. A new generation of chefs is cooking Egyptian food with ambition, within sight of the Pyramids. Great tables: Khufu's.
Couscous, bazeen and fish soups along the coast, with Italian echoes in pasta dishes such as mbakbka.
Tunisia cooks with olive oil, chillies and the sea. Harissa, the fiery pepper paste, and couscous, which Tunisia shares with its neighbours, are both on UNESCO's intangible heritage list.
Couscous, slow tagines and chorba, fragrant with cumin and coriander, and pastries for every festival.
Moroccan cooking is one of the great cuisines of the world: slow tagines of lamb with prunes or chicken with preserved lemon, couscous on Fridays, pastilla of pigeon in fine pastry dusted with cinnamon, and sweet mint tea poured from a height. The finest kitchens of Marrakech serve it in palaces. Great tables: La Grande Table Marocaine, Sesamo.
The Mediterranean Season Letter
Four letters a year, one for each season: the Mediterranean from spring to autumn, and Beyond the Mediterranean, into the Alps, in winter. The one best hotel to book, and the events worth crossing a sea for.
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