Wallpaper* City Guide - Milan by the insider

If you’re in Milan this week for Salon del Mobile we have here a mini city guide that’s perfectly designed for your "off duty" moments, courtesy of jewellery designer Nathalie Jean. Originally from Montreal, Nathalie Jean visited Milan for a five-month stint and ended up staying 20 years. After working as an architect for 22 years, she now exclusively designs for her eponymous sculptural and fine jewellery line.

A self-declared brioche and cappuccino aficionado, she’s visited hundreds of cafés in the city to zero in on Milan’s best breakfast. Her choice for best pastry is Taveggia (Via Visconti di Modrone 2), where the treccina is especially noteworthy. Her favourite cappuccino is at Pasticceria Bastianello (Via Borgogna 5) or at Pasticceria Sissi (Piazza Risorgimento 6).

Il Baretto al Baglioni, Alfonso gentleman's barbershop

Jean is also a fan of traditional Milanese restaurants and the attentive, old school waiters that serve in them, especially Il Baretto al Baglioni (see page 44 of our Milan City Guide). For the freshest sushi, she recommends Yoshi, (Via Parini 7) in the Repubblica district, where young ex-Nobu chef Yoshinobu Kurio makes his own sake and offers soft-shell crab fresh from the waters near Venice.

Pane e Acqua, De padova

Although Jean describes Milan as the city where she "works and works only", she likes to unwind admiring the contemporary art at Galleria Massimo De Carlo (Via Giovanni Ventura 5) and shopping at 10 Corso Como, which sells her jewellery line and other covetable objects of fashion and design – "You can’t leave without picking up something," she says.

Phaidon's Wallpaper* City Guides are in our online and app store now.