However, the local kitchen was given a breath of fresh air by Erik Lindelauf from the Brussels institution La Truffe Noire, 1, a Michelin star. Compared to other similar culinary evenings across Slovenia, this story was a little different – Planinka is an unpretentious family hotel, built on the ruins of an older hotel which had its golden years in the former Yugoslavia. It is run by the Žerovnik couple, Tomaž and Helena, and tries to offer the area much more than a good balance between folklore and ambitious foreign guests.

Several years ago the owner of the La Truffe Noire restaurant, Luigi Cicirielli, fell in love with the region and has been returning every since. Last year he brought along his longtime chef, 52-year-old Lindelauf. Together with the Žerovnik's they started thinking about ways on how to refresh the hotel menu. Upon his return to Brussels Lindelauf gave the matter some thought and then took up the offer of reserving his last days in March for a working visit to Ljubno, where he found inspiration in the surrounding forests, streams and meadows. The old-new success story of the Planinka Hotel is the venison carpaccio with matured parmesan cheese and truffles.

"At the beginning it all seemed strange to him, which is normal. In addition there is also the language barrier, but we managed to coordinate ourselves and everything ran smoothly," was Lindelauf’s shy explanation of his experience with one of the hotel's chefs Zdravko Robić. Mrs. Žerovnik, who spent two weeks in Lindelauf's kitchen in Brussels, describes him as a very down-to-earth and simple man. Answering a question of whether he intends to come back and check if the kitchen was following his guidelines, Lindelauf smirks: "If they ask me to. If not, only on holiday."