Matt Preston names the world's best breakfast

What's even better than eating dinner at one of the best restaurants in the world? Waking up the next morning to discover a breakfast that's equally as delicious.

I think I might have had the best breakfast in the world. Now, this is no idle claim. I’ve thought deeply through other contenders and I’ve even analysed the mental state I was in. What makes this breakfast so extraordinary is that the night before I ate at one of the best restaurants in the world and I enjoyed this breakfast just as much. It was tasty, beautifully relaxed and had a wonderful sense of place. All the best restaurants do this for me, but usually they only explore this at dinner.

It was also in a country that’s not renowned for its first meal of the day. And I make this claim with full knowledge there is much competition around the globe for the title.

Among the contenders, it could be something uniquely local like a bowl of congee eaten at a rickety table near Hong Kong’s Happy Valley Racecourse, or the perfect flaky croissant and bowl of milky coffee at a pavement table on a sunny Parisian corner. Or maybe an adventure into light desi crêpes like South India’s finger millet ragi dosa with “white butter” or the crisp egg hoppers of Sri Lanka dolloped with a green chilli and coconut sambol. In Hanoi I love a clean-tasting bowl of pho, the soup bobbing with shredded chicken or swags of raw beef fillet barely poached pink in the broth.

Egg hoppers are a popular Sri Lankan breakfast.

At the other end of the scale are the wonderful hearty breakfasts of North America and the UK, normally a significant commitment to carbs and fat that will see you though a day of sightseeing. For me the toss-up is between a stack of fluffy pancakes with bacon, butter and loads of maple syrup in the Canadian style or the Deep South’s steak and eggs with a side of grits for ballast. This corn porridge is sweeter and less hairy-chested than Scotland’s famous oat porridge, made with little more than water, salt and resentment (probably towards the weather, the English who stole their oil, and the failures of their national football team).

In fact, far better than porridge when in Glasgow is to seek out one of the old workmen’s cafés – I have a favourite in Paisley – for a roll filled with a potato scone and a slice of their famous square sausage. Known as Lorne sausage, this is like a slab of sliced sticky pork meatloaf, but often spiced with nutmeg or allspice. It’s delicious. Accompany this with a pot of strong tea and follow it with heavily buttered white toast and thick-cut Dundee marmalade. Sorry, I digress but I’d have this as a contender.

A full breakfast with black and white pudding is a classic, but it's not No.1.

And we haven’t even touched on the full English, full Scottish, or the full Irish in Eire, but essential for me are ideally both black and white pudding. “The full” is prized as a luxe adventure of many moving parts, but here too I feel my anointed “best breakfast in the world” has it covered for variety.

To make matters even more unusual, my choice for the world’s breakfast comes from Italy, a country where breakfast is barely a thing. Perhaps milky coffee drunk at the counter with a custard-packed pasticciotto down in Puglia, a crisper custard-filled lobster tail of a sfogliatella in Naples, or some type of brioche up in Milan.

While “cake for breakfast” can make a welcome change, my pick looks at the delicacies of the local region, around Modena, and translates them into a multi-course delight where the lightness of technique makes everything perfect as a way to start your day. But they have cake too if you want it.

Breakfast at Casa Maria Luigia has shot to the top of Matt Preston's list.

Instead of sausages, there’s a crisp-edged slice of porky cotechino sausage with a froth of zabaglione acting as a lighter Hollandaise and a drizzle of treacle-thick ancient balsamic vinegar.

No bacon here but thinly sliced prized local prosciutto draped over the lightest bread puffs with soft cheese and another splash of the local black gold. These gnocchi fritti are impossibly thin-skinned and mostly hot air.

For those who love eggs there are wedges of frittata made from the chef’s grandmother’s recipe and flavoured with greens or caramelised onion. And lovers of the usual cheese in the continental breakfast won’t complain about a plate of crumbly aged parmesan from the region served with roast figs. 

The breakfast frittata is made to chef Massimo Bottura’s grandmother’s recipe. Picture: Matt Preston

There are pastries too if your hunger is still grumbling, from tarts stuffed with local greens to sweeter options with homemade jam. Coffee and freshly squeezed orange juice are flowing.

The tables outside in the sun have views of the sprawling gardens with soaring trees, a rambling vegetable patch, pool and tennis court. Inside the restaurant, in the 18th-century house dismissively called a B&B by the owners, is some of the chef’s impressive art collection.

Casa Maria Luigia in Modena, Italy, is Matt Preston's No.1 breakfast destination.

Everything is immaculate here at Casa Maria Luigia, from the gardens to this breakfast to the gym where you (could) work out under the watchful gaze of vintage Ferraris and Ducatis. It isn’t just some of the world’s best produce like prosciutto, balsamic vinegar and parmesan that they make in the hills around here.

It helps that the chef in question is one of the world’s best, Massimo Bottura, and that his partner is former New York gallery owner Lara Gilmore whose eye is all over the details at this gorgeous, luxurious small hotel just outside Modena where Bottura’s three-star restaurant, Osteria Francescana, has twice been named the best restaurant in the world.

As an aficionado who has eaten breakfast in countless countries, I can’t think of anywhere as good, with breakfast helmed by a chef who is both this illustrious and thoughtful, or where it reflects the bounty of their corner of the country so well.

Originally published as Matt Preston names the world's best breakfast