The Chef JKP Podcast

Send us Fan Mail This episode is different. Joining him is the person who knows him better than anyone else, his wife, Maria Knight-Paccheco. What begins as a fun conversation quickly becomes one of the most personal episodes of the podcast. They talk about marriage, life behind professional kitchens, the sacrifices hospitality demands, why chefs think differently, the reality of building somethin...

Send us Fan Mail Chef JKP sits down with Ariana Bundy, chef, author, television presenter, and founder of Ariana's Persian Kitchen at Atlantis The Royal Dubai. Ariana shares her journey through Iran, Switzerland, New York, London, Paris, Los Angeles, and Dubai. From childhood food memories with her grandmother, to studying at Le Cordon Bleu, running pastry kitchens in Hollywood, writing cookb...

Send us Fan Mail Chef JKP sits down with Glen Ballis, chef, restaurateur, and one of the most influential figures in modern hospitality. Glen shares his journey from a Greek family in Melbourne to leading kitchens across Thailand, Indonesia, China, Russia, and Dubai. He reflects on the chefs who shaped him, the lessons that came from failure, and how different cultures transformed the way he cooks...

Send us Fan Mail Chef JKP sits down with Ben Kouider, Founder of Champavin. Ben shares how he went from engineering and oil and gas to building a business around champagne in the UAE. They talk about Normandy, family food memories, global travel, leaving corporate life, grower champagne, and the biggest mistakes people make when drinking champagne. This is a story about food, reinvention, and unde...

Send us Fan Mail What does it take to build a Korean street food brand from a used food truck into a global restaurant business? Chef JKP sits down with Dok Kwon, President & COO of CUPBOP, and Junghun Song, Co-Founder & CEO of CUPBOP. They talk about the early food truck days, Junghun’s journey from dance to hospitality, Dok’s move from Citadel to restaurants, their Shark Tank pitch, why...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when the conversation about water goes far beyond what we drink? Chef JKP sits down with Angie Pająk, CEO of Greentech by Aquacell, for a different kind of episode. From childhood food memories in Poland to studying across four universities, Angie’s story moves through hospitality, sustainability, wellness, water technology, plastics, and the challenge of turning big...

Send us Fan Mail What does it take to turn pressure into purpose before the age of 26? Chef JKP sits down with Shehab Medhat, Chef of Savryn Restaurant in Dubai, whose journey began at 15 with a kitchen job he took just to buy football shoes. From steward to self-taught chef, 35 restaurants in Egypt, Bocuse d’Or Africa, San Pellegrino Young Chef, and winning Top Chef Middle East, his story is buil...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when someone who once worked underground in engineering tunnels ends up shaping some of hospitality’s most iconic guest experiences? Chef JKP sits down with Samuel Graham, founder and CEO of The LightUp Group, hospitality consultant, nightlife operator, and host of the Tasty Humans podcast. From bartending in London’s booming theme restaurant era to managing legendary...

Send us Fan Mail What changes when a three Michelin star restaurant becomes a book? In this episode, Chef JKP sits down with Himanshu Saini and Liam Collens for the launch of The Rise of Indian Food: Recipes Reimagined by Trèsind Studio. This episode goes inside the making of the book. How a three Michelin star restaurant was translated onto the page. How recipes were selected, tested, written, ed...

Send us Fan Mail What starts with olives on a kitchen counter becomes a life built around food, travel, stories, and bringing people to the table. Chef JKP sits down with Tiffany Eslick, content and creative director at Spinneys, food writer, podcaster, and founder of Tiff’s Table. From climbing onto kitchen counters for olives as a child to leading content across one of the region’s most respecte...

Send us Fan Mail This episode of the Chef JKP Podcast steps outside the kitchen and into the world of storytelling, with actor, voiceover artist, and video editor Keith Dallison, for a conversation about craft, creativity, and what it really takes to bring stories to life. Chef James Knight-Paccheco sits down with Keith to explore his journey through film, television, and media, from early struggl...

Send us Fan Mail This episode of the Chef JKP Podcast features Chef Alvin Leung, better known around the world as The Demon Chef, for a conversation about reinvention, ambition, creativity, and the unconventional road that took him from engineering into the highest levels of global gastronomy. Chef James Knight-Paccheco sits down with Alvin, founder of Demon Duck, three Michelin-starred restaurate...

Send us Fan Mail This episode of the Chef JKP Podcast features Saradhi Dakara, chef and co-founder of Stellar Society, for a conversation about food, identity, entrepreneurship, and what it truly takes to build something of your own from the ground up. Chef James Knight-Paccheco sits down with Saradhi to trace a journey that began in a small town in Andhra Pradesh, wound through some of Dubai&apos...

Send us Fan Mail This episode of the Chef JKP Podcast features Laura Lai Coughlin, one of Dubai’s most recognizable voices in food media, for a conversation about food, storytelling, journalism, and the path that took her from family kitchens to the centre of the city’s dining scene. Chef James Knight-Paccheco sits down with Laura, food writer, presenter, content creator, and host of Best of Dubai...

Send us Fan Mail This episode of the Chef JKP Podcast brings together two standout names from Dubai’s dining scene for a conversation about friendship, entrepreneurship, hospitality, and building something meaningful in a competitive market. Chef James Knight-Paccheco is joined by Chef Neha Mishra, founder of Kinoya, and Panchali Mahendra, CEO of Atelier House Hospitality, for a special dual-guest...

Send us Fan Mail Season 12 of The Chef JKP Podcast kicks off with a solo episode, bringing you closer to the stories, people, and conversations you’ll hear across the season. With 14 episodes ahead, this season features chefs, operators, and industry voices sharing their journeys, decisions, and defining moments inside hospitality. In this opening episode, Chef JKP reflects on what’s been happenin...

Send us Fan Mail This special collaborative episode of the Chef JKP Podcast brings together three voices from different corners of the culinary world for a conversation about identity, storytelling, and the power of food to connect cultures. Chef James Knight-Paccheco is joined by Tasneem Rawat, host of The Café, and legendary South African celebrity chef Jenny Morris, who joins the conversation r...

Send us Fan Mail Front row at Middle East & North Africa’s 50 Best Restaurants 2026, from a night at Mandarin Oriental Emirates Palace, Abu Dhabi. There’s a certain kind of tension in the air before the list is revealed. The chefs arrive, the teams gather, the community tightens up, and for a few hours, the region’s hospitality story sits in one room. In this special event episode, Chef JKP sp...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to the third episode of the SNACKS series. SNACKS are short, bite-size episodes from the Chef JKP Podcast, built to spotlight the strongest ideas from our most impactful conversations. In SNACKS Episode 3, Chef JKP brings together insights from Björn Frantzén and Regan Hillyer, exploring leadership, mental resilience, and how emotional state influences performance inside h...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to the second episode of the SNACKS series. SNACKS are short, bite-size episodes from the Chef JKP Podcast, built to spotlight the strongest ideas from our most impactful conversations. In SNACKS Episode 2, Chef JKP brings together insights from Himanshu Saini and Peggy Pui Ki Li, exploring pressure, recognition, and what really changes after success arrives. Himanshu spea...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to the first episode of the SNACKS series. SNACKS are short, bite-size episodes from the Chef JKP Podcast, built to spotlight the strongest ideas from our most impactful conversations. In Snack Episode 1, Chef JKP brings together insights from the legendary chef Pierre Koffmann and Reim El Houni, offering two perspectives on leadership, craft, and visibility in hospitality...

Send us Fan Mail Season 11 closes with a conversation that defines what true creative commitment looks like at the highest level of gastronomy. In this season finale of the Chef JKP Podcast, Chef JKP is joined by Carmen Rueda Hernandez, Executive Pastry Chef of Bricks Dessert and one of the most quietly influential pastry chefs working today. From a small village in the mountains of Spain to the k...

Send us Fan Mail Season 11 closes with the annual festive conversation that has become a tradition on the Chef JKP Podcast. In this Christmas special, Chef JKP welcomes back two of MENA region's most respected food writers, Courtney Brandt and Liam Collins, for an unfiltered year-end conversation on everything that shaped hospitality, dining, and food culture in 2025. From Michelin milestones...

Send us Fan Mail Season 11 continues with conversations that explore the forces shaping hospitality beyond the kitchen. In this episode, Chef JKP sits down with Georgie Woollam Edwards, Founder of Katch International, a London and Dubai based PR and experiential agency that has helped shape some of the region’s most influential restaurant and hotel launches. Georgie’s journey moves from early year...

Send us Fan Mail Season 11 continues with a story built on discipline, precision and a chef who believes great food comes from craft, culture and the people you grow with. Alex Dilling grew up between London and California, splitting his childhood between home-cooked food, travel, music and skateboarding. Cooking was not the plan until it became the only thing that made sense. From culinary school...