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The firework shell weighed almost 2,800 pounds, about the weight of a Toyota Corolla, and was 62 inches — a little more than five feet — in diameter.A team at Steamboat Fireworks launched the shell from a 26-foot steel tube buried in Emerald Mountain, which overlooks the festival. Explosives propelled the shell out of the tube at 300 mph, and it rose nearly a mile in the air before exploding.”We invested hundreds of hours into this project, and we anticipate that we will enjoy the satisfaction of this success for months to come,” said project manager and financier Tim Borden, in a press release.An official from Guinness World Records attended the launch and presented a certificate to Borden and his team of three other men: Ed MacArthur, Eric Krug, and Jim Widmann, according to the press release.The former world record for the largest firework was set in the United Arab Emirates in 2018 with a 2,397-pound shell. Borden told CNN that his team has been working to break the record for seven years and spent thousands of hours building progressively larger fireworks.The team tried to break the record last year, but the shell exploded too early.”When you think of it on the physics level, to get a ton of anything up in the air with one explosion takes quite a bit of thinking,” Borden said.As one of this year’s precautions, the group made a shell casing out of sixty miles of tape.”It took a month of eight-hour days just to wrap this firework,” Borden said, “Last year, we think the shell might not have been quite thick enough to withstand the burst that sent it into the air.”Their hard work paid off. Video shows the shell exploding in a massive burst of red that illuminated the sky and nearby ridgelines.”People are already asking us, ‘What’s next?'” Borden said in a press release, “I really can’t answer that question, other than to say, whatever it is, I hope to do it with this same bunch of guys.”

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Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (CNN) — If you’re already asleep during the pre-flight announcements, you’re likely to miss it. Southwest Airlines is asking passengers to report any “unwelcome behavior” on their airplanes to the flight attendants on duty. As of January 22, it’s now part of the airline’s required pre-flight emergency briefing and demonstration, right after the instructions about operating oxygen masks.”We are here for your comfort and safety,” said the flight attendant on the ground at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Georgia. “Please report any unwelcome behavior to your flight attendant. Thank you for your attention.””This change reflects Southwest’s commitment to ensuring a safe and welcoming environment at all times,” Southwest spokesman Brian Parrish told CNN, via email, confirming the language had recently been added to the airline’s pre-flight briefing. The airline wants to remind customers that their flight attendants, who are known throughout the industry for making their flights fun, “are an approachable, professional resource for reporting any unwelcome behaviors or conduct during a flight,” Parrish said. Southwest’s flight attendants have established procedures, which may include re-seating a customer away from the person exhibiting the “unwelcome behavior,” requesting that the offending customer stop whatever offensive behavior they’re doing, notifying the captain and seeking law enforcement assistance upon landing, Parrish said. There are a growing number of reports of people being assaulted in flight and not knowing what to do at 30,000 feet, including kidnapping victim Elizabeth Smart. FBI investigations into midair sexual assaults increased by 66% from fiscal year 2014 to 2017. The bureau said it had opened 63 investigations into sexual assault on aircraft in 2017, compared with 57 in 2016, 40 in 2015 and 38 in 2014.Other airline crews have had to deal with sexual harassment in the sky as well. The airline told CNN in October 2019 that its that seat-to-seat messaging was already being phased out across the fleet at the time of the incident. While United Airlines doesn’t include harassment-related language in its pre-flight briefing, the airline instituted enhanced training in 2018 to help flight attendants recognize harassment and unwelcome conduct. Flight attendants are empowered to remove customers who are being harassed from those situations, United spokeswoman Kimberly Gibbs said. American Airlines doesn’t include such language either, but a spokesman says its flight attendants “are trained to address a wide range of issues that may arise inflight, and are empowered to take action in response to any situation that would detract from a customer’s journey with us. “We strive to create a safe, inclusive and comfortable environment for our customers and team members, and we do not tolerate unwelcome or inappropriate behavior of any kind,” said American spokesman Derek Walls. Anthony L. Black, a representative for Delta Air Lines, told CNN Travel that “We have language for both our on-board video and in-flight announcements that encourages customers to flight attendants if they need assistance.” He added: “We also continue to review our communications for opportunities to update our messages.”CNN Travel has reached out to Alaska Airways and JetBlue Airways about their policies. The airlines have not yet responded.

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Paris (CNN) — In the near future, visitors to Paris will be able to take a dip in the Seine and dine in an abandoned, underground subway station.Landmarks like the Eiffel Tower and Montparnasse Tower will go under the proverbial knife and undergo major makeovers, while a Paris rooftop will earn the title of the world’s largest urban farm.These are among some of the innovative revitalization projects poised to write a new chapter in one of the most popular and mythologized tourist destinations in the world in advance of 2024, when Paris hosts the Summer Olympic Games.Over the next four years, abandoned, disused and outdated spaces will be given a second life as new dining destinations, themed hotels, museums and leisure hotspots.Urban renewalParis’ urban renewal campaign, titled “Reinventing Paris,” includes making the Seine clean enough to host the 2024 Olympic triathletes. A photo rendering shows just what this would look like.Courtesy Apur – LuxigonSome of the projects were hand-picked under the city’s urban renewal campaign “Reinventing Paris,” which first launched in 2014 under Anne Hidalgo, the city’s socially progressive, eco-minded mayor, and her deputy mayor Jean-Louis Missika, who oversees the city’s urban planning and economic development strategies. (Hidalgo is up for re-election this spring.)One of the overarching edicts of the campaign? Instead of selling off public assets to the highest bidder, the city took a decidedly different approach, says Missika: “less quantitative, more qualitative.””Instead of a competition that awarded assets to those who offered the biggest check, we decided to make the competition about the most innovative and interesting project proposals, projects that would be eco-minded and of use to the general public,” he tells CNN Travel.Proposals that featured multi-disciplinary teams — architects, economists, landscape artists, sociologists, researchers and urban agriculturalists — were given special preference, as were projects in underserved areas that featured mixed-use spaces, be it co-working offices, hotels, residences, daycare centers, sport centers or pools.Over the next four years, abandoned, disused and outdated spaces in Paris will be given a second life as new dining destinations, themed hotels, museums and leisure hot spots.Courtesy ViParisThey were looking for projects that fight against gentrification and promote inclusion, Missika says. “Because a city that becomes a ghetto for the rich, is a city that dies,” he adds.While some of the projects were awarded well ahead of Paris’s successful bid for the 2024 Olympic Games, Missika is particularly proud of La Cité Universelle in the 19th arrondissement, a mixed-use development that will host the Paralympic Games. Entirely accessible for wheelchair users, the building will feature hotel rooms, offices, a rooftop restaurant, gym, fitness centers and retailers.From a massive cleanup of the Seine to the greening of the Eiffel Tower, here’s a look at some of the most dynamic and innovative revitalization projects that are poised to “reinvent Paris” ahead of its star turn as host of the 2024 Olympic Games. Swimming in the SeineThe Seine is set to undergo a huge cleanup operation.Courtesy Apur – LuxigonIt’s one of the boldest, most ambitious goals of Mayor Anne Hidalgo’s eco-conscious mandate: to clean up the Seine river in time for the 2024 Olympic Games and host the swimming portion of the triathlon.By the time the games kick off in 2024, the waterway will have undergone a massive billion-euro clean-up operation to reduce levels of E. coli, fecal matter and other pollutants. But more than just providing a dramatic backdrop to an Olympic competition, the cleanup will also give locals an outdoor urban beach in the center of Paris.The city has already successfully piloted the idea in the 19th arrondissement, turning parts of the Bassin de la Villette canal into an outdoor swimming hole in 2017. In 2018, more than 110,000 people swam in the canal. By 2025, the overall goal is to create 23 swimming sites along the Seine, five of which would be in Paris.Turning the Eiffel Tower into the “lungs” of Paris in advance of the Olympic Games in 2024, one of the world’s most recognizable towers is set to get a major boost to its curb appeal and address issues like overcrowding and accessibility. The plan is to turn one of the world’s most visited landmarks into a family-friendly, urban park. Courtesy Apur – LuxigonThe overall goal is to turn one of the most visited landmarks in the world — every year, 7 million tourists ascend the tower, while 30 million visit the site — into a family-friendly, urban park for both tourists and local Parisians alike.One of the boldest changes coming to the area is the greening and pedestrianization of the Pont d’Iéna bridge which links the tower to Trocadéro Gardens across the Seine. Today the bridge is a concrete passageway for cars and scooters.But in a few years, it will be transformed into a tree-lined, grass-carpeted promenade for pedestrians. That’s according to the sketches from landscape architects at London-based Gustafson Porter + Bowman, who are leading the project. Meanwhile, the busy roundabout Place de Trocadéro will also be transformed to feature more green space and ampitheater-style seating for optimal views of the Eiffel Tower. And in spring, Trocadéro Gardens will burst to life with newly planted cherry trees that will border the fountains for a dramatic and romantic stroll down towards the Eiffel Tower.Le Terminus: Underground dining at the end of the lineIn its previous life, trains roared through Métro Croix Rouge in the 6th arrondissement before it shuttered and became an abandoned phantom subway station. But in 2022, the disused station will be given a second life, this time as a new and unexpected dining destination in Paris.Le Terminus will be a subterranean dining hall across two platforms. Courtesy SAME/NovaxiaDesigned by architects at SAME Architecte and overseen by developer Novaxia, Le Terminus (the French word to denote the final stop) will transform 246 feet of subway platforms into a subterranean dining hall, with food courts, restaurants and wine and cocktail bars in a first for Paris. Overall, the two platforms will feature about a dozen bars, cafes, bistros and gourmet food shops where locally sourced ingredients will be given the spotlight.World’s largest rooftop urban farmSet to open in 2020, it’s estimated that the rooftop urban farm will produce 1,000 fruits and vegetables every day and grow 30 different varieties of plants. Courtesy ViParisParis is set to become home to the largest urban farm in the world with the transformation of 150,700 square feet (around the size of two and a half football fields) of rooftop space atop the convention and exhibition center Paris Expo Porte de Versailles in the southwest end of the city.Set to open in April 2020, it’s estimated that the farm will produce 1,000 fruits and vegetables every day, and grow 30 different varieties of plants. The urban farm will also offer workshops for the public and feature garden lots that locals can lease to grow their own fruits, vegetables and herbs. A rooftop restaurant and bar from Le Perchoir, the group that already owns a chain of trendy rooftop venues across Paris, will serve up a menu featuring produce harvested from the farm.The project is being overseen by Viparis, which manages the convention center, Agripolis and Cultures en Ville, specialists in urban agriculture, and Le Perchoir.New sports-themed hotelThe as-yet unnamed sports-themed property is meant to fill a void in the Paris’ local hotel market by catering to fitness, sports and health-conscious travelers. Courtesy NP2FIn another first for Paris the city will see the opening of a new hotel specifically designed with professional and amateur athletes in mind. Located in the northeast end of the city in the 19th arrondissement, the project will turn a former electrical substation and historical building into a hybrid hotel, studio and training center where visiting athletes will be able to prepare for — and recover from — their sporting events.Running the Paris Marathon in the spring? Guests will be able to prepare themselves both mentally and physically for the big event with yoga and Pilates classes at the on-site studio and use the dedicated “mental training area” featuring individual meditation cubicles to visualize success and focus on their goals.After their runs, guests can use the sports spa to recover their sore muscles in cold and hot baths, book massages and sign up for treatments with physiotherapists and healthcare specialists.The sports-themed property is meant to fill a void in the local hotel market by catering to fitness, sports and health-conscious travelers, be it marathon runners, or athletes competing in martial arts, rugby or rowing tournaments which take place regularly in the city. Overall, the as-yet-unnamed hotel will feature more than 60 rooms and is expected to open in 2021.Aerog’Art: A new art and culture destinationFor decades, a huge Air France sign has hung on the facade of the Esplanade des Invalides in the 7th arrondissement, laying public claim to the site with a dedicated museum and airline terminal.But under the vision of Dominique Perrault Architecture, which is also overseeing the construction of the Olympic and Paralympic village in Paris, the landmark will take on a new identity as Aerog’Art, the city’s newest destination for art and culture, with a children’s museum, food hall, restaurant, outdoor patio and courtyard, as well as art exposition spaces and an art lab. The project is expected to be completed in 2025.Architects at the Nouvelle AOM group are reinventing the skyscraper Parisians love to hate by replacing its opacity with a bright, transparent façade for a “breathable” effect. Courtesy Nouvelle AOMNow Paris’s most maligned tower is getting a makeover: Montparnasse TowerIt’s the lonely skyscraper Parisians love to hate. Visible from as far as the Sacré-Coeur Basilica clear across town, the Montparnasse Tower has long been considered an eyesore for locals who decry its modern, utilitarian esthetic — a jarring monolith against Paris’s historic and romantic architecture.With this in mind, architects at the Nouvelle AOM group are reinventing the building completely, replacing its opacity with a bright, transparent facade for a “breathable” effect on the Paris skyline. Designs also call for thousands of square feet worth of gardens and plants, including the highest rooftop garden in the city and a greenhouse that will supply the tower’s food and beverage offerings.Moreover, the building is being designed to be as energy-efficient as possible with the installation of solar panels and rainwater capture. Overall, the tower will meet 70% of its own energy needs during the work day. When complete in 2024, the tower will also house a hotel between the 42nd and 45th floors.Gare Masséna: Reinventing the food modelAn experimental micro-village is coming to the 13th arrondissement. Courtesy Lina Ghotmeh ArchitectureYou could call the project Réalimenter Masséna (which loosely translated means “re-feeding Masséna”) an experimental, vertical micro-village.When complete in 2022, the old, disused train station Gare Masséna will introduce a mixed-used development to Parisians in the 13th arrondissement centered around urban farming and sustainable food ecosystems.Along with vertical farms and gardens, the building, which will strike a commanding presence with its wood facade, will also feature farmer’s markets, R&D lab, community center, residential, retail and office spaces. At the heart of Architect Lina Ghotmeh’s vision is a new kind of food system centered around sustainability, farming, the elimination of food waste and public education.

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(CNN) — The silent and oppressive hunk of metal in the corner comes alive as Erin Gregory tells its story. The nervousness of the soldiers who climbed aboard the aircraft almost 80 years ago is practically palpable.While it’s a rare treat for Gregory herself to give tours to the public, her passion for the subject matter and emphasis on storytelling is something she’s passed on to the museum’s tour guides and is evident throughout the space.The Canadian National Aviation and Space Museum is located in Ottawa, Canada’s capital city.Courtesy IngeniumGregory’s aim is for the museum to spark interest in those who don’t think they care about planes — especially (but not exclusively) women, who often don’t feel like aviation museums are a place for them. For anyone other than the most dedicated airplane gearhead, aviation museums can be boring. (Sorry to paint an entire category with a single brush, but it’s true.)Gregory and her team, on the other hand, can paint the picture through stories culled from much education and learning.”There will always be people who come into the museum because they want to see the machines, and we still have all of that for them,” Gregory says. “But our goal is to also engage with people who got dragged along and are not expecting to enjoy themselves or learn anything.” And so they share stories: about the people who once flew the tremendous aircraft that make up the museum’s impressive collection. Stories, for instance featuring an Avro 683 Lancaster X, which WWII soldiers boarded for late-night bombings over Europe. Women. Where are they?Curator Erin Gregory is passionate about the museum’s archive and loves sharing stories with visitors.Courtesy IngeniumAviation is still to this day seen largely as a man’s domain — the romanticized notion of the Wright brothers getting off the ground and dashing flyboys valiantly going off to war has long dominated our collective understanding of aviation history. Especially for women and people of color, they rarely themselves in the stories of those who are traditionally profiled in museums. And the number of female pilots compared to men in 2020? Well, it further serves the narrative. (Gregory says that only about five percent of airline pilots around the world are women.)Meanwhile, the female pioneers, like Katherine Stinson, who taught at her family’s Texas flying school in the early 1900s, are often presented as little more than footnotes. With the exception of glamorous outliers like Amelia Earhart and Bessie Coleman (the first black American woman to hold a pilot’s license), most women pilots are left out of the cultural zeitgeist. While it’s a rare treat for Gregory herself to give tours to the public, her passion for the subject matter and emphasis on storytelling is something she’s passed on to the museum’s tour guides.Courtesy IngeniumThis is what Gregory is working to change. As a female historian, making sure female aviators’ stories are heard and remembered is part of what drives her. “One of my goals as a curator is to feminize the collection and to try to have the floor be much more representative of all the people who fly, including women,” she says. “I’m working to revise and revamp the museum to make it as inclusive as possible.”Gregory is uniquely equipped to tackle this problem because despite her palpable adoration for all things aviation, it’s an interest that hasn’t always come naturally to her. Before getting the job at the museum, Gregory wouldn’t have counted aviation as even a passing interest. As a child, like most young girls, she wasn’t encouraged to develop an interest in airplanes and other heavy machinery. This is a museum for people who often find aviation museums dull.Courtesy IngeniumAfter graduating from university with a Master’s degree in Canadian history, she got a job with Ingenium, which operates three of Canada’s nine national museums. When she was assigned to the Aviation and Space Museum seven years ago, Gregory was far from overjoyed. “I thought ‘oh no, this is not going to go well.’ But it’s become such a huge part of my life in ways that I couldn’t have even imagined,” she says, noting that while she isn’t trained as a pilot, she has gone to ground school — the classroom instruction before in-air training for future pilots — since landing the job. “My assumption is that if I was exposed to this when I was younger, it may have sparked something.”Understanding the historySince the museum has a Canadian focus, Gregory uses her displays to tell stories of Candian pioneers in aviation.Courtesy IngeniumIf Gregory herself is living proof that aviation can become fascinating to people who typically yawn at the sight of a plane in a museum, she knew she could create that same kind of interest among her visitors, especially other women who have always been told aviation is a masculine pursuit. One way of doing this is getting more of those nearly forgotten women’s faces and artifacts into the museum. Many determined women got their private licenses even in the early days of aviation, she says. But until the 1980s, very few Canadian and American women even bothered to try for a commercial license since it was unlikely that they’d land jobs as commercial pilots. Still, many extraordinary women persisted and prevailef, like the British “Attagirls” who would transport planes to the front during WWII so that male pilots could fly them into battle. Since the museum has a Canadian focus, she tells stories of Canada’s Rosella Bjornson, who became North America’s first woman commercial airline pilot in 1973 and become the first female Canadian airline captain in 1990. (No, Canada didn’t have a woman captaining an airline flight until the 1990s and the United States isn’t much better, with Beverley Bass captaining her first American Airlines flight in 1986.) Gregory’s curation brings alive stories of women aviators from history. Two members of the flying club with an aircraft from the 1930s are featured in this photo from the museum’s archive.CASM Archives/CAVM-22369Part of what makes the museum special is Gregory’s refusal to segregate women’s stories or succumb to tokenism with a “women in aviation” display, grouping all of these women together. Instead, she’s been planting stories of these pioneering women throughout the museum to put them on the same level as their male colleagues. “We don’t necessarily want to single them or any other group out,” Gregory says. “Our approach is to be as holistic as possible. When you encounter these stories, you’re encountering them on the same level as you would the story of a famous man in the aviation industry.” Unflappable and determinedGregory says that many of these women aviators share personality traits — primarily an unflappable determination and refusal to take “no” for an answer — which plays into the second strategy she’s using to make the museum more compelling. Rather than simply posting a photo of a smiling woman in a flight cap beside a list of a plane’s specs, she works to tell stories by creating more engaging text on the panels, ensuring that her tour guides bring some life to their presentations, and supporting video games that the museum is developing to connect on an interactive level. Original members of the Flying Seven Women’s Flying Club the Flying Seven pose in front of a biplane in 1936. Gregory’s interested in shared personality traits of female aviators such as these.CASM Archives/CAVM-22373Whether these stories are about women pilots, pilots of color who broke racial barriers, or those young soldiers who manned the big black Lancaster, it’s the human element that ultimately pulls in visitors of all genders and backgrounds — people who perhaps didn’t realize an aviation museum could be interesting and even inspiring. “There’s an emotional connection you get with a story,” Gregory says. “For many people their entry point into aviation history isn’t about this machine. It’s about the person who served on this machine — maybe the grandfather who flew it or the mother who built parts for it in a factory. There are so many ways we can grab people because aviation is so much a part of all of our lives. I’m trying to grab all people at that storytelling level.” If you go:The Canada National Aviation and Space Museum is located in the city of Ottawa, about 15 minutes by car from Parliament Hill. From September 3 to April 30, the museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Wednesday to Monday (closed on Tuesday). It is open seven days a week from May 1 to September 2, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is about $11 ($15 CAD) for adults, $10 for seniors, and $7.50 for youth ages three to 17. Children ages two and under are admitted for free. Active Canadian military personnel, Canadian military veterans, and Indigenous peoples are also granted complementary admission. Guided tours are included with the price of admission. Elizabeth Chorney-Booth is a freelance writer based in Calgary, Canada. She is the weekly restaurant columnist for the Calgary Herald and her work has also appeared in a number of other Canadian and International publications.

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(CNN) — From Mexican dishes with a stellar view across the rooftops of London to Ethiopian cuisine in upstate New York, Mediterranean creativity in Bangkok to a Texas-inspired grill in Hong Kong, many of the most exciting new restaurants opening this year take their cue from global cuisines. Here are 20 new spots around the world to try at the turn of the new decade.Madera at Treehouse LondonMadera at Treehouse London provides an elevated take on traditional Mexican cuisine in a scenic location.Madera at Treehouse LondonThe sister restaurant to Toca Madera in Los Angeles and Scottsdale, Madera at Treehouse London brings an elevated take on traditional Mexican cuisine to the British capital. Located 15 floors up, its plant-filled interiors, quirky design touches and sweeping views are proving a big draw already.The food on offer includes a raw bar with flavorful ceviche dishes, a taqueria promising freshly-made blue corn tortillas and specialties like carne asada, and Black Angus skirt steak steeped in a coriander marinade and served on lava stones. Vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free menus and options ensure that all tastes are catered for, while the drinks’ program includes premium mezcals and tequilas, as well as inventive cocktails featuring ingredients such as chile de arbol or prickly pear.TURK Fatih Tutak, TurkeyTurkish chef Fatih Tutak launches his first restaurant in Istanbul this year.Courtesy TURK Fatih TutakAcclaimed Turkish chef Fatih Tutak, who has worked everywhere from Copenhagen to Hong Kong, is returning to his roots by opening his first restaurant in Istanbul.By working closely with Turkish fishermen, farmers and artisanal producers, Tutak promises to celebrate his country’s diversity of produce. Served in a modern, light-filled setting, the food here merges the chef’s extensive travels and overseas experience with historic Turkish techniques to reinterpret traditional flavors. This means multi-layered dishes that include bulgur wheat with miso, veal and radish, or a main of duck with sour cherries and chestnuts. Desserts on offer include a “snow'” of lemon verbena and persimmon, while all the wines served are Turkish.TURK Fatih Tutak, Now Bomonti, Cumhuriyet Mahallesi, Silahşör Caddesi, Yeniyol 1. Sokak No:2 Bomonti-Şişli; +90 (212) 709 56 79The Mayfair Supper Club, Las VegasSeveral of the dishes served up at The Mayfair Supper Club in Las Vegas are prepared table side.Courtesy The Mayfair Supper ClubVegas is arguably one of the best dining destinations in the US thanks to its seemingly unstoppable wave of restaurants led by domestic and international celebrity chefs. Open since New Year’s Eve, The Mayfair Supper Club, a new spot on the Strip at The Bellagio, promises to add to the culinary landscape, while throwing in some old school glamour.The roaring twenties provide the inspiration for the spot’s live entertainment, which features throughout dinner before a late-night jazz party — all played out against the famed Bellagio Fountains. As for the menu, many dishes are prepared table side, while the Wagyu and caviar handroll topped with gold leaf is one for the high-rollers.Cheval Blanc ParisChef Arnaud Donckele’s eagerly anticipated restaurant will open at the luxurious Cheval Blanc Paris in 2020.Courtesy Cheval Blanc ParisEven though it’s not set to open for at least a few months, this upcoming restaurant from three Michelin-starred chef Arnaud Donckele already has Parisian fine dining lovers excited.The location is the super-luxurious Cheval Blanc Paris on the banks of the Seine, adjacent to the famed Louvre Museum. Donckele promises to both celebrate and pay tribute to the “City of Light,” as the vast majority of the seasonal ingredients used will come from in and around the French capital.Given his stellar reputation, Donckele’s gastronomic creations are sure to be feasts for the eyes as much as the stomach, with artfully-crafted and flawless presentation at every course.HENRY, Hong KongThis new American grill and smokehouse is housed at the Rosewood Hong Kong.Courtesy HenryBased in Hong Kong, this new American grill and smokehouse channels the southern states of the US with a menu overseen by British Chef de Cuisine Nathan Green. The meat specialist comes with critical and public acclaim from a number of restaurants in both Hong Kong and London, all of which have celebrated charcoal grilling, meat-curing and butchery.His menu at HENRY’s continues in this fashion, with choices such as American Black Angus aged for 90 days in Woodford Reserve Bourbon and ash or a Becker Lane Farm Pork Chop served with heirloom carrots and pickled mustard seeds. Homemade sauces — 5-pepper & bourbon or tomatillo & ancho — really pack a punch.Southern-style dishes run from snacks and starters through to soups and sides, while desserts sound suitably sinful. On the design front, diners can expect leather banquettes and polished brass for a nightclub feel, while the marble bar leads to a terrace for cocktails, fine wines or cigars.HENRY, Rosewood Hong Kong, Victoria Dockside, 18 Salisbury Road. Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong; +852 3891 8888Davies and Brook, LondonDavies and Brook serves up dishes like duck glazed with honey and lavender.Courtesy Davies and BrookFew names in contemporary gastronomy are as renowned as Swiss chef Daniel Humm, who has helped make restaurants such as New York’s iconic Eleven Madison Park unmissable.His first London venture comes in the form of Davies and Brook at the storied Claridge’s Hotel. The restaurant is named after the cross streets the renowned building in the city’s Mayfair district spans. This is a space Humm knows well, having first worked there more than 25 years previously.Some of his signature dishes feature, such as duck glazed with honey and lavender, but there are plenty of new additions, like grilled short rib of beef with fermented mint or citrus-marinated yellowtail with crispy rice. The elegant Art Deco interiors include contemporary touches, such as works by American artist Roni Horn, while the bar is the go-to spot for cocktails and small plates.Davies and Brook, Claridge’s, Brook Street, Mayfair, London W1K 4HR; +4420 7107 8848Côte by Mauro Colagreco, Capella, BangkokAcclaimed chef Mauro Colagreco is bringing his renowned cuisine to the Thai capital.Courtesy Côte by Mauro ColagrecoNot only does Argentinean chef Mauro Colagreco boast three Michelin stars at Mirazur, his southern France restaurant, he also holds the coveted number one spot on the always contentious World’s 50 Best Restaurants list.Côte by Mauro Colagreco, the latest venture for the culinary powerhouse, who trained under titans such as Alain Ducasse and Bernard Loiseau, is launching in the Thai capital of Bangkok this year. The menu is set to offer modern takes on classic dishes from the Mediterranean coasts of France and Italy, in addition to some signatures already served at Mirazur.In a city where food is woven into daily life like few others, expectations are high that Côte by Mauro Colagreco will add to Bangkok’s reputation as a serious dining destination.Le chêne, South AfricaLe chêne provides superb views of South Africa’s Franschhoek Valley.Courtesy Le chêneLe chêne, which is French for “the oak tree,” recently opened in Franschhoek, a destination fast claiming a reputation as South Africa’s culinary capital.Here chef Darren Badenhorst crafts fine dining from two courses through to a full tasting menu.Hyper-local produce, namely ingredients that come almost exclusively from the estate where the Manor House sits, is transformed into dishes such as baked local hake with salted lemon and a garden pea risotto or porcini mushrooms foraged and paired with a tartare of cured Springbok. The venue’s glass conservatory offers panoramas of the Franschhoek Valley, while the wine is another highlight thanks to the region’s famously rich vineyards.Le chêne, Dassenberg Road, Franschhoek, 7690; 021 492 5988Hutong, MiamiHutong offers up “occasionally fiery” cuisine, like this crispy soft-shell crab with red Sichuan dried chilies, from northern China. Courtesy HutongMiami looks set to get a little bit hotter with the arrival of Hutong, a new restaurant specializing in “occasionally fiery” cuisine from Northern China. Positioned in the city’s burgeoning Brickell district, it’s the second US location (NYC is the first) for a restaurant born in Hong Kong.The decor melds Miami and China, meaning local artworks merge with teapots from Zhejiang and columns of Chinese clay roof tiles. Most strikingly, the dining room features 35,000 grey antique bricks salvaged from a 1930s building in China.From the menu, Beijing’s famous roast duck and Shanghai’s fresh seafood dishes are two highlights, but the standouts are those featuring Sichuan’s famously spicing and numbing chili peppers. The signature Red Lantern, where crispy soft-shell crab is served in a traditional Chinese wood basket covered with red Sichuan dried chilies, is undoubtedly the most photogenic. Milder options include extravagant dim sum featuring Wagyu beef or lobster and squid ink. Hutong, Miami, 600 Brickell Avenue, Miami, FL 33131: + 1 (786) 388-0805Dinner by Heston Blumenthal at The Royal Atlantis Resort, DubaiHeston Blumenthal’s successful restaurant “Dinner By Heston Blumenthal” is launching in the UAE.Courtesy Royal Atlantis Resort & ResidencesBritish chef Heston Blumenthal has won huge commercial and critical acclaim for his playful, innovative and theatrical takes on food at restaurants like the three Michelin-starred Fat Duck outside London.One of his other successes is “Dinner By Heston Blumenthal,” which celebrates British cuisine dating back all the way to the 1300’s in a series of painstakingly crafted dishes. These include the famed “meat fruit,” where a chicken liver parfait is brilliantly disguised to look like a Mandarin orange.After openings in London and Melbourne, the restaurant’s next destination is The Royal Atlantis Resort in Dubai, slated to open at the end of 2020. Dinner by Heston, The Royal Atlantis Resort & Residences, Dubai, United Arab Emirates; +971 4 426 2888The Japanese by The Chedi Andermatt, SwitzerlandThis new dining spot is the most elevated Japanese restaurant in Switzerland.Courtesy The Japanese by The Chedi AndermatLuxurious Swiss ski hotel The Chedi Andermatt, designed by famed Belgian architect Jean-Michel Gathy, is now home to a new restaurant simply called The Japanese. Positioned some 2,300 meters above sea level, it’s the highest Japanese restaurant in Switzerland, with stunning views overlooking the Oberalp Pass and the Ursem Valley, especially from its 45-seat terrace.Its cozy Alpine interiors feature roaring open fireplaces as well as Asian touches reflecting the brand’s heritage, while the menu is led by Executive Chef Dietmar Sawyere.Expect refined renditions of Japan’s vast panoply of techniques and dishes, all served up with Alpine precision and attention to detail.Des Roses et des Orties, ToulouseDes Roses et des Orties is set to launch in Toulouse with Michelin-starred chef Yannick Delpech at its helm. Courtesy Des Roses et des Orties restaurantKnown as the “Pink City,” Southern France’s Toulouse is welcoming a brand new establishment that comprises a restaurant, bistro, wine cellar and more, all at one address. Led by Michelin-starred chef Yannick Delpech, Des Roses et des Orties promises affordable meals made from high quality, locally sourced ingredients. The focus is on authentic local cuisine that’s crafted through a combination of historic techniques and recipes with modern touches and execution — one of Delpech’s signature dishes is pork with Jerusalem artichokes and fresh thyme.The kitchen’s focus is on authentic local cuisine. The region’s foremost artisans and producers, especially those committed to a sustainable vision of agriculture, inform dishes from a charcuterie plate to pigeon. With more than 800 choices on the wine list, there’s guaranteed to be a bottle for even the choosiest of palates. Ardor, The West Hollywood EDITION, Los AngelesUS chef John Fraser heads up Ardor, serving up California cuisine with a global twist.Courtesy The West Hollywood EDITIONUS chef John Fraser at Ardor brings an impressive culinary resume, having trained for years at Thomas Keller’s legendary French Laundry in Napa Valley. At the newly-opened Ardor, Fraser’s focus reflects his reputation as one of the world’s foremost vegetable chefs. Californian ingredients provide the backdrop for unique dishes such as the Italian classic pasta dish cacio e pepe. In Ardor’s version, ancient grains replace the pasta, and both raw cauliflower and pomegranate are unique additions.Drinks range from classic cocktails to creations made on the spot based on a guest’s preferences. Unexpected and unusual savory elements result in creations such as rye with toasted fennel, bergamot and avocado salt, or mezcal with tangerine chile soda and lime.Ardor, The West Hollywood EDITION, Los Angeles, 9040 Sunset Boulevard, CA 90069; +1 424 310 1572Henrock, United KingdomHenrock at Linthwaite House is surrounded by immaculate gardens.Courtesy Henrock at Linthwaite HouseBased in England’s famously picturesque Lake District, Henrock at Linthwaite House offers wonderfully perfect views over manicured gardens and the lake beyond.The restaurant takes its name from an outcrop in the water called Hen Rock that’s visible from its terrace.Head chef Brian Limoges previously worked under Dominique Crenn at San Francisco’s Atelier Crenn, and his menu reflects his global experience, even if much of the produce comes from the restaurant’s nearby farm.Small sharing plates are the order of the day, with halibut baked in cabbage leaf, bay shrimp and pink pepper, or a custard made from sea urchin set between two crisp pastry layers and eaten like a sandwich on offer. The distinctly decadent desserts available include fried apple pie with miso butterscotch and cassia clotted cream.Henrock, Crook Road, Bowness-on-Windermere, Windermere, LA23 3JA; +44 (0) 15394 88600Memoria, LisbonPortugal’s dining scene continues to go from strength to strength, and hip Lisbon neighborhood Campo de Ourique is home to another new spot making waves, Memoria.Named from the Italian word for “memory,” there are no prizes for guessing the cuisine on offer hails from Italy. The restaurant’s own organic garden, situated just outside Lisbon, provides much of its produce — in the same vein as similar restaurants in Italy.Memoria is somewhat aptly housed in a former ice cream shop. Seats in the tree-shaded courtyard are the most sought after, while handwritten menus offering fresh pasta or classic saltimbocca with pillowy gnocchi add to the traditional feel. Memoria, Lisbon, Rua 4 de Infantaria 26A, Lisbon, Portugal; +351 210 998 366Courchevel Bistro, Park City, UtahCourchevel Bistro in Park City, Utah, is based in a historic former Coal and Lumber building.Courtesy Courchevel BistroIt’s a resort largely known for snow and the Sundance Film Festival, but Utah’s Park City now has a fresh dining destination to add to its attractions. Based in a historic former Coal and Lumber property, Courchevel Bistro is bringing the flavors of France and the Mediterranean to Main Street. Executive Chef Clement Gelas oversees the fine dining restaurant, as well as a cafe, wine bar and private lounge.Spread across more than 5,000 square feet, diners can expect dishes such as onion tart or braised chicken coq au vin, with desserts including a decadent apple beignet — a sort of French doughnut — or a plate of local cheeses to round things off. Colours of the Garden at Soneva Kiri, ThailandThe menu at Colours of the Garden at Soneva Kiri consists of seven plant-based dishes.Soneva KiriLocated on a small island off the coast of Thailand, Colours of the Garden takes diners on a vegan culinary journey through four parts of the country, each with their own distinct taste profiles and produce. Intriguingly, the team led by Danish chef Carsten Kyster also incorporates Nordic cooking techniques and cooking methods, including fermentation and pickling.The result is a menu of seven plant-based dishes that celebrate organic fruit, vegetables and herbs, much of which is grown literally within arm’s reach. Diners begin their visit with a walk through Soneva Kiri’s garden, where three small dishes are served as finger food, before the main event kicks off.This could mean a take on the classic Thai curry Khao soi, but made with baby corn, enoki and sour mushrooms instead of the traditional chicken. Desserts may include ice cream with aged pineapple, mango pudding and fragrant galangal.The Yard, Great Scotland Yard Hotel, LondonThe Yard is opening at a building that once housed the headquarters of the London Metropolitan Police force. Courtesy The YardThis hot new restaurant is housed at Great Scotland Yard, a hotel that was once the home of law and order, namely the former headquarters of the London Metropolitan Police force. Chef and restaurateur Robin Gill’s approach is to celebrate some of Britain’s finest ingredients with a slice of culinary theater thrown into the mix.If venison with damson and baked celeriac doesn’t inspire, then maybe cod from Cornwall in southwest England, served with pumpkin ravioli and shellfish bisque, will do the trick.For the Krasota, MoscowAn artist’s impression of Russian Chef Vladimir Mukhin upcoming Moscow restaurant For the Krasota.Courtesy For the Krasota Russian chef Vladimir Mukhin, who famously featured in popular Netflix show “Chef’s Table,” is already well known on the fine dining scene thanks to his Moscow eatery White Rabbit, which is frequently named as Russia’s best.His new restaurant, For the Krasota, promises an unusual and experimental dining experience where the evening is as much about memories and interaction, “A place that will take you back to childhood or catapult you into the day after tomorrow.” Light, music and floating crystals all contribute to the dining destination, whose name translates as “beauty.” The quail cooked in ashes, a reference to the Phoenix — a popular motif within Russian folklore — seems set to be a signature dish.EthioEritrea, New YorkThis10 table restaurant in upstate New York (Syracuse) provides a wide menu of dishes from across Eritrea.Syracuse.com | The Post-StandardFinally, on our list is a new upstate New York restaurant with an unusual back story. Ched Tesfahiwot Okube is from Eritrea, but spent seven years in an Ethiopian refugee camp, where he was able to hone his cooking skills in a cafe. Now his dishes have a new audience at restaurant EthioEritrea, which offers a wide menu of dishes from across the region. One regular feature is traditional soft sourdough injera, which is used to scoop meats, grains or vegetables from stews known as wot.Okube also dedicates part of the menu to vegetarian and vegan dishes, such as braised greens or red lentil and chickpea stews. The ten-table restaurant, located in Syracuse, retains the family style feel of his former cafe. Wicker baskets known as mesobs serve as communal serving dishes, and it’s a meal about far more than the food.

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Out in the desert, a very different Egyptian adventure awaits intrepid travelers.

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