Warm(er) (Europe-ish) destination with Culture & high-end/special/exotic/ethnic dining for Jan/Feb?

I'm not sure about high-end dining but Istanbul?

Turkish food has an excellent reputation, but I don't know about high-end.

And my first thought was Morocco, with the same caveat.

I like food but don't do high-end, so I have no personal experience to offer.

Madeira gets a lot of its traffic from Great Britain, I believe, and a good bit of it is upper-crust. It is a very beautiful island known for walks along irrigation canals affording views of terraced hillsides. It's very fertile and I assume the fishing is good, so in theory...

Sicily will feel quite different from Belgium, and the food is both good and different. It seems reasonable that there would be high-end options in places like Palermo (which happens also to have an incredible number of lovely churches and chapels).

There's also the Basque Country, specifically San Sebastian, I guess, but January wouldn't be my chosen time of year. You might need to fly into Bilbao instead.

I've been to all of the above and would happily return, but I didn't have a high-end meal in any of them.

Have you looked at any magazines geared toward fine dining and travel? (something like the now defunct Condé Nast, etc? or the New York Times, which publishes a lot of high-end travel/dining info?) I am just not sure that the majority of the Rick Steves audience can afford (or values) the type of luxury you suggested in other posts (i.e. $1,000 meals...did you really mean "one thousand US dollars"?). But in reference to your question, I immediately thought of Istanbul. I've had many amazing meals there, although at lower price points. You can find all kinds of dining in Istanbul - simple to highly refined. I bet that's true of just about any country with a major cosmopolitan city or the confluence of many cultures throughout its history. But it definitely won't be warm in Istanbul in January or February. I would also suggest Malta or Sicily - surely you can find some great meals there too just by doing some research (you can look at Michellin starred places or other appropriate research sources). For what it's worth, I don't think money spent necessarily correlates with quality and happiness - you can spend relatively modest sums and still get a very fresh, quality meal with excellent ingredients.

Perhaps a restaurant like Mikla in Istanbul? Would that kind of food and scenery appeal to you? The restaurant is top-rated and it looks like you can see the Bosphorus from its rooftop setting, which is magical in itself (but I would go when it's warmer, not in January or February)
https://www.miklarestaurant.com/en/mikla-restaurant/restaurant
https://www.miklarestaurant.com/en/menu/prix-fixe-a-la-carte

Istanbul has some high end restaurants featuring tradition Ottoman cuisine. I would suggest searching the Conde Naste website or other luxury magazines.

Have you considered staying in northern Catalonia? One could make Girona as a base for a week and really explore the area. I know that there is a pretty high concentration of Michelin star restaurants there, such as El Celler de Can Roca (which is currently ranked the second best restaurant in the world). This area is also great if you want to taste traditional Catalan foods such as Canelones de ceps or a Suquet de Peix.

However if you want a truly unique culinary experience in Catalonia during the winter months, than I would recommend going to a Calçotada. A calçotada is a traditional Catalan winter barbecue where calçots (long green onions) are packed tight on a grill, charred and then dipped in that rich and nutty romesco sauce, one usually drinks red wine with all of this. But that is just the first course! Then follows a course of roasted lamb and local Catalan sausages (Butifarras) with white beans. For dessert, oranges and white Cava are served.

It is quite the social (and messy) event with many people gathering together to celebrate in the countryside. There is also a large annual calçotada in the town of Valls, celebrating the harvest of Calçots. I am not sure how a non-local would be able to get in to one of these calçotadas, but I would assume there are organized trips for visitors who want to get "in on the action" :)

Burgundy France has most of what you asked for. Beaune is a great base to bike through the vineyards to nearby towns. Lyon has more Michelin starred restaurants than you can shake a stick at.

Corsica and Sardinia both have reputations for excellent food and you can find some high end food there. Mallorca attracts a fair share of celebrities and villages such as Deia have some very good, exclusive restaurants. I've never encountered any ridiculously high priced places (thankfully). Even the Michelin starred Marc Fosh in Palma is cheap (by Michelin standards).

Thanks for the suggestions all.
To clarify, the 1000$ meal was for a larger company but still plenty expensive.

Sounds interesting, with lots of good suggestions.

I don't think Istanbul, France or Northern Catalonia/Spain is applicable, sub 10 temperatures might a bit too cold to comfortably city-trip.

Morocco I'm unsure. I am travelling with a female companion. I'm not sure how comfortable that would be.

Siciliy and Madeira have been bumped up a bit in the list!

I noticed nobody said anything about Athens, Portugal or the Canary Islands while those were pretty high in the list. Any particular reason?

Most of Portugal and the Balearic islands will be just as cold as the majority of Spain (except for Andalucia which is usually 5 °C warmer). If you are looking from a purely climate perspective, the Canary Islands would probably be your best bet, but one does not go to Canary Islands for the culinary experience, it is more for nature and hiking or being on the beach in the summer.

Maybe you could consider South America? It will be their summer by the time you are planning to go and they have some of the best restaurants/cuisines in the world. For example, you could spend a week in Lima, Peru? Lima is quite the culinary crossroads.

Howabout Israel? Warm climate, a lot of history and great food.

I think your female companion would be fine in Morocco. The issue when I (female) traveled there with my mother around 1990 was simply that flocks of young men (pre-teen to mid-teen, mostly) would follow tourists around, wanting to be their guides. It was totally non-threatening but massively annoying. I read very recently on this forum that the unofficial-guide situation is vastly improved.

Athens has great museums, and I assume it has the country's best food scene, but it is far from my favorite spot in Greece from the aesthetic standpoint. It was a fairly small city until late in the 19th century, when it began growing rapidly and relatively unattractively. There's a population chart on the Wikipedia page where you can see how the city grew. I'd have a hard time going to Greece and spending all my time in Athens.

I don't think mainland Portugal is as warm is the winter as you're probably expecting.

Nothing in Europe will guarantee you temps above 10 degrees in January, I don't think. The only "European" place I know that people escape to in those months are the Canarys but they seem very geared around the all-inclusive scene which isn't what you're looking for. Basque country is great for the food and culture requirements but can be chilly in Summer, let alone January.

I think you're going to have to get a bit further away for what you're looking for.