When it comes to gastronomy, Steven Raichlen is both a connoisseur and a carnivore. As the author of Planet Barbecue! and The Barbecue! Bible and the host of the television program Primal Grill, Raichlen knows his way around an open flame. He also knows his way around the globe when it comes to uncovering lusciously prepared meats. While he believes every type has its virtues, Raichlen highlights lamb as an option teeming with possibility and flavor, and one that generally is underappreciated in North America. "I adore it because it has a more complex flavor than any of the other red meats," he says. "And the preparation options for lamb are incredibly varied."

If you should find yourself traveling through the Mediterranean, Raichlen recommends a stop in Monaco, specifically at Le Louis XV (www.alain-ducasse.com), the flagship restaurant of the Hôtel de Paris in Monte Carlo. Founded by Alain Ducasse, the restaurant houses a kitchen equipped with a charcoal-burning fireplace and serves a roasted lamb marinated with summer savory and Espelette peppers, garnished with a sauce structured around traditional Provençale ingredients, such as garlic and anchovies. However, Raichlen says the sauce is subtle in its flavors and lets the quality of the lamb carry the dish. "This is milk-fed lamb so tender and young," he says, "eating it qualifies as infanticide."

Of course, a lamb dish need not be gourmet to be delectable, and by way of contrast, Raichlen urges lamb lovers to visit the Moonlite Bar-B-Q Inn (www.moonlite.com) in Owensboro, Ky., for the barbecued mutton. "Yeah, we’re talking mutton—strong-flavored, mature sheep," Raichlen says, "but smoke them the better part of a day over hickory and serve them shredded with the world’s only black barbecue sauce and you get some of the most unique lamb on the planet."

Philippe Requin will tell you, matter-of-factly, that lamb is his favorite dish. Over the past 29 years, the hotelier has lived in nine countries and enjoyed an extensive array of memorable, lamb-centric meals. When asked to pick his favorite, Requin praised Relais & Châteaux grand chef Jonathan Cartwright for his dish that combines roast medallion and rack spring lamb over ratatouille with a pesto potato puree and rosemary tomato sauce.

Requin first experienced the dish at the White Barn Inn in Maine and was so blown away by it that he brought the dish—and Chef Cartwright—to Muse, the headlining restaurant of Requin’s new boutique hotel, the Vanderbilt Grace (www.vanderbiltgrace.com), in Newport, R.I. "Coming from Provence in the south of France—where I grew up—and New England being so far away, if I would have closed my eyes, I would have been transported back in time," he says.

Years ago, Michael Kirrene enrolled in culinary school and was trained at the Ritz Escoffier in Paris. It was there that he learned the art of simple, straightforward cooking—a style that suggests the most appealing flavor of a meat-focused dish is the meat itself. "If you dress it with salt and pepper and you cook it right, you don’t need anything else," he says. "Why ruin it with some other flavor unless you’re trying to hide something, right?"

That philosophy forms the core of Capo (www.caporestaurant.com) in Santa Monica, Calif., a modern Italian restaurant founded by Bruce Marder, which served Kirrene the most memorable lamb dish that he’s had in recent years. Cooked over a wood fire, the restaurant’s rack of lamb is prepared and presented simply—with either a sprig of rosemary or thyme. "You got some smokiness from that wood fire and it had a nice salty, peppery crust," Kirrene recalls. "The inside was perfectly cooked and all the flavor profiles were there. It was everything that you expect lamb should taste like."