World of Mouth podcast

Fayçal Bettioui is the chef of Table 3 in Casablanca, Morocco. Bettioui grew up in a family of pastry chefs. close to the port in Casablanca, and fish and seafood was always a staple food in his family. His studies took him to the United States, where he switched to his chef’s career in some of the best restaurants in New York and Miami. He worked at Per Se in New York, and in 2011 opened his firs...

Max Rocha is the founder and chef of Café Cecilia in London. He was born in Dublin into a family of creatives. He started working in the music industry, but felt he needed something else in his life. After attending a bread baking course in London, he ventured into the restaurant world, working at iconic London restaurants like The River Café, St. John, and Spring. In 2021 he opened his restaurant...

Heidi Bjerkan is the chef and founder of Credo in Oslo, Norway. She grew up in the coastal town of Trondheim, where her grandfather, who was a fisherman, supplied the family with fresh fish and seafood. Her culinary journey took her from the Oslo Culinary School through some of Norway’s and Europe's most respected kitchens, including the Grand Hotel, the Queen Elizabeth II, Palace Grill, Bølgen &a...

LG Han is the chef at Labyrinth in Singapore. Born to 3 generations of restaurateurs, food was never far from LG’s mind. He first studied finance at the London School of Economics and worked as a corporate banker in Singapore before quitting to pursue cooking. He cut his teeth working for internationally renowned chefs in Europe and Singapore, gaining a passion for the restaurant kitchen. In 2014,...

Albert Franch Sunyer is the chef and co-owner of Restaurant Nolla in Helsinki, Finland. Born in a small mining town in Catalonia in Spain, as a young student he left his biology studies behind, to explore his passion for cooking at Michelin-starred restaurants in Barcelona. As a pastry and dessert chef, he worked in Thailand and then moved to work at Helsinki’s top restaurants. He and his two...

Lynn Hazim is the owner and restaurateur of Middle Child in Dubai. She grew up in Beirut in Lebanon as the middle child of her food-obsessed family. Hazim made a career in the corporate world and moved to Dubai ten years ago working as a Google executive with a food blog. During covid, she gradually made the shift to becoming a cook, host and just some months ago, a restaurateur. This year, she wa...

Luke Selby is the chef at Palé Hall Hotel in North Wales. Selby started cooking when he was 14, and he began his career at Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, where he progressed from commis chef to sous chef under Raymond Blanc, before moving on to Restaurant Gordon Ramsay and Hide. He then ran the kitchen at Soho restaurant Evelyn’s Table with his brothers, where they received a Michelin star. A Roux Sc...

Ivan Ralston Bielawski is the chef and owner of Tuju in São Paulo. He was born in São Paulo in 1985, and comes from a family with strong ties to gastronomy; his parents are the founders of the Brasilian  Ráscal restaurant  chain. He initially studied music at the Berklee College of Music in the United States, but in his twenties decided to follow his true passion: cooking. He t...

Jacob Kear is the chef and owner of Lurra in Kyoto, Japan. Born to a Japanese mother in California, he grew up both in Japan and the US. After completing culinary school in Pasadena, and working in hotel kitchens, he won a national competition on the Food Network that caught the attention of a restaurant in Korea where he became the executive chef at the age of twenty-four. He then trained in kitc...

Yasmina Hayek is the Executive Head Chef at Em Sherif restaurants and cafés, and she is based in Beirut, Lebanon. She grew up in a family where food brought people together, told stories and upheld traditions. As a child, she loved visiting her mother Mireille’s restaurants and that led her to studies at the Institut Paul Bocuse in France, before working in Michelin-starred kitchens, from Paris to...

Ryan Cole is the chef and co-owner of Salsify at the Roundhouse in Cape Town. Cole was born in 1989 into a Cape Town fishing family. In high school, he worked for three days in a hotel kitchen and decided to attend the South African Chefs Academy to become a chef. He moved to London in 2010 and worked at The Square and La Trompette. Three years later, he returned to Cape Town and worked his way to...

Tim Raue is the chef and owner of restaurant Tim Raue in Berlin and many other restaurants in Germany. He’s one of Germany’s best-known chefs and has redefined German top gastronomy. He was born in Berlin in 1974, and had a rough youth as a member of a street gang in the Kreuzberg district. He saw the kitchen as a way into the working life, and began his culinary training at the age of 17. After a...

Torsten Vildgaard is the executive chef at FZN by Björn Frantzén in Dubai. He grew up in Copenhagen, and as a young chef had a dream of joining the small team at newly founded Noma. Finally, after winning the Chef of the Year competition in Denmark, he got the job. At Noma he spent many years as sous chef and head of R&D. After Noma he opened his own fine-dining restaurant, Studio in Copenhage...

Marcin Król is the chef and restaurateur of newly opened Cypsèle in Paris. He was born in Poland but left his native country in 2013. His culinary career started when he was 18 years old, working at Noma in Copenhagen. After a year in Copenhagen, and some failed university studies, Marcin Król Marcin started as Sous-Chef at restaurant Boragó in Chile. After Borago, he worked at Stockholm...

Sarah Cicolini is the chef of SantoPalato in Rome. She was born in Abruzzo, and grew up in the countryside with her young parents and grandparents. She attended medical school, but at the age of 23, she quit her studies to become a chef. Without a chef’s training, she wanted to pursue her personal dream of cooking for people. She worked her way to some of Rome’s most famous restaurants, and opened...

Ivan Brehm is the chef-owner of restaurant Nouri and the creative space Appetite in Singapore. As a chef, he is known for his thoughtful approach to food, creativity and "Crossroads Thinking”, emphasising the connections and interdependence of all things, extending beyond cooking. This comes partly from his multi ethnic heritage and childhood in São Paulo in Brazil. As a young chef, he left Brazil...

Alex Strödel is the chef at restaurant EI in Berlin. She grew up in the South of Germany in the Bavarian Alps, and at the age of 16, started working in restaurants as a front of house. Working in Munich, she switched to the kitchen and then moved to Berlin to work in fine dining restaurants Tulus Lotrek and Nobelhart & Schmutzig. At her current Berlin restaurant EI, she focuses on local produc...

Esben Holmboe Bang is the chef at three Michelin star restaurant Maaemo in Oslo, Norway. Originally from Denmark, he’s lived in his wife’s homeland Norway for more than 20 years. In 2010 he founded Maaemo to showcase the bounty of exceptional Norwegian produce. Six years later, Maaemo became one of the first Nordic restaurants to be awarded 3 Michelin stars. Today, the restaurant holds a steady po...

Patrice Demers is the chef and co-owner of restaurant Sabayon in Montreal, Canada, together with his wife, sommelier Marie-Josée Beaudoin. Demers entered the gastronomic world as a pastry chef, where he was fascinated with the techniques and challenges of baking and desserts. Today, he runs his 12-seat restaurant Sabayon in Montreal together with his wife. In the podcast, we will hear Patrice Deme...

Bo Songvisava is the co-chef and co-owner of Bo.lan in Bangkok. She runs the restaurant with her husband Dylan Jones, and together they are on a mission to reintroduce Thailand its native cuisine. She is also an environmental activist working to fight industrialization and support small-scale farmers who supply her restaurant. Bo Songvisava grew up in a bustling household in Bangkok, as one of fiv...

Niki Nakayama was born in Los Angeles in 1975 to Japanese parents, and grew up in Koreatown in LA. She attended culinary school in Pasadena, then worked at  Takao  and embarked on a three-year journey to Japan, where she learned the roots of kaiseki at a  Ryokan  owned by her cousins. Back in LA, Niki Nakayama opened  Azami Sushi Cafe , known for its all-female staff...

Matt Orlando is an American chef based in Copenhagen. He has worked with some of the World’s best chefs, like Eric Ripert, Raymond Blanc, Heston Blumenthal, Thomas Keller and René Redzepi. His first own restaurant, Amass in Copenhagen, set the benchmark for social and environmental responsibility, and he has followed this path since. He grew up in San Diego in California, and after working with so...

Wylie Dufresne is the chef and owner of Stretch Pizza in New York. He was born 1970 and grew up in Rhode Island. He trained at the Culinary Institute and started working with chef Jean-George Vongerichten in 1994, taking on the role of chef de cuisine at Jean-Georges. In 1999 he became the chef at 71 Clinton Fresh Food, and in 2003 opened his experimental restaurant WD-50, where he explored the po...

Sven Erik Renaa is the chef and owner of restaurant Renaa in Stavanger, Norway. He was born in Trondheim and developed a passion for cooking from a young age. After completing his culinary education, Renaa started his career working in some of Norway’s top restaurants. In 2000, he worked with acclaimed chef Eyvind Hellstrøm at Oslo’s Bagatelle restaurant, and in 2009, he opened his own restaurant,...

Nicolai Nørregaard is the head chef and co-owner of restaurant Kadeau in Copenhagen and Bornholm. He was born and raised on the island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea. As a child he was influenced by his grandfather’s cooking, who cultivated and grew his own vegetables, caught his own seafood and preserved his own ingredients for the winter months. This way of traditional cooking is what inspired th...