Through Netflix’s series Chef’s Table, dedicated to the most interesting and world renowned chefs, the Slovenian master chef Ana Roš and her Hiša Franko restaurant last year became famous all across the world. People in 190 different countries with access to Netflix had a chance to see her skills. In January she became the world’s best female chef after being chosen by the academy of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants.

This April Ana Roš received the award to become The World’s Best Female Chef 2016 in Melbourne, Australia. But this wasn’t the only prestigious award the world’s best chef received this year. Hiša Franko in Kobarid, a small town close to the border between Slovenia and Italy, run by Anna and her husband and sommelier Valter Kramar, placed 69th out of 100 among the best restaurants in the world.

The prestigious award ’The World’s 50 Best’, given by the Restaurant magazine, is considered by most authorities to be the ’Oscar’ of the culinary world, while its jury consists of thousands of chefs, culinary critics and experts. “The Restaurant academy’s ratings are currently the most recognized with chefs across the world after the Michelin rating, as it involves the judgement of people within the industry. There’s no chance of lobbying; the chefs have no way of influencing the decisions since the voting is done by reporters, opinion makers, bloggers, chefs, winemakers and foodies from all over the world,” explained Ana Roš.

At this point in time it is hard to predict how big the impact of both prestigious awards will be. When asked how the award from the Netflix series Chef’s Table affected her and Hiša Franko, Ana Roš stated: “The effects are enormous, just the daily website traffic is now a hundred times bigger compared to what it was before and with it the pressure that the office and reception deal with has also increased. The guests come from every corner of the world. We also get to experience how global Netflix actually is, since it’s not just about the increase in numbers of American guests, although that was the most evident increase, but there are more guests from everywhere, from the Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark that come to visit us because they have seen us on Netflix.”

The recognizability of the Netflix star and best female chef in the world hasn’t gone unnoticed by the Slovenian Tourist Board (STO), which chose Ana Roš as the ambassador of the I Feel Slovenia brand. The participants in a business event held for American organizers of tourist travels that took place at the Intercontinental Barclay Hotel in New York and was organized by the STO, had the chance to taste some of her culinary delights.

Chef Ana Roš on her kitchen, team and the award

My specialty may be the fact that I remain very indigenous and use local ingredients that are totally different to those elsewhere in the world, and are very authentic. The icing on the cake of course remains the chef’s personality. Every person expresses themselves in their own unique way and I love innovative flavors, contrasts and that’s what complements food and is more often than not crucial.

Up to the point where we were introduced to the Netlfix audience we mostly impressed our visitors, since regardless of the fact they heard of us and our kitchen, they were still visiting a place without any significant culinary tradition and fame. Therefore, the whole experience was a positive surprise for them. Now, things have slightly turned around. After the exposure on Netflix and the receipt of the prestigious award, guests arrive with far greater expectations, which consequently raises our responsibility and I can assure you there’s a lot of adrenaline in the air, since we feel obliged to fulfill the expectations of people who travel halfway around the world.

After last year’s Netflix episodes, the number of guests had already doubled. Before, we used to have trouble filling our restaurant capacity during the pre-season and post-season months and now this has balanced out perfectly, however waiting lines during the weekends do exist. We have created some additional space, since we offer pre-dinner meals from 5 to 7 pm, but the waiting line over the weekends is long, while during the week we might just be able to squeeze guests in.

Now that we have got the global attention we have a lot of Americans, Australians, also New Zealanders and last year a lot of Canadians, while there’s also a constantly growing increase in guests from Asia, Hong Kong and Singapore in particular.