Save & Follow
Our new food-centred culture has transformed chefs into celebrities. We see them featured in newspapers or television shows - but real foodies want to know more: discover their passions and how they see the world.
When Fine Dining Lovers features chefs, we give you much more than their biographies or gastronomic philosophies: we offer never-before-seen glimpses into their lives both in and out of the kitchen. We spent a day with the recently-awarded three Michelin star chef, Massimo Bottura, who also occupies one of the top spaces in the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list with his restaurant Osteria Francescana in Modena. In an exclusive video interview, he gives us a personal tour of his own world: from his love for modern art and music, to bringing us face to face with his trusted producers of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, the princely ingredient in his dishes.
The chef Davide Scabin compares his kitchen team to a pack of wolves, and his restaurant, Combal.zero, to one giant stage: find out why in the exclusive video, where Fine Dining Lovers accompanies the chef to the golf course, Scabin’s second-favourite place after the kitchen. And join us on a trip to Villa Panna in Tuscany, to meet the chefs Carlo Cracco, Roland Trettl and Anatoly Komm, who pay a special tribute to the “simple” and traditional Tuscan cuisine, by revisiting it with their own special touches and interpretations.
Our special chef stories, however, aren’t limited to Italy. We attended a culinary congress that is becoming one of the most influential in the world: Gastronomika in San Sebastian, the heart of Spain’s Basque Country. And it’s San Sebastian where Juan Mari Arzak’s restaurant, Arzak, has been since 1897. Juan Mari is the third generation to command the kitchen in his family’s restaurant, now along with his daughter Elena as co-chef. Over the last two decades, Juan Mari has skillfully managed to reinterpret his native cuisine according to a signature formula that he himself defines as “research-based, evolving and cutting edge”. And from Spain, we head to Switzerland, where Andreas Caminada, one of the world's best young chefs with 3 Michelin stars, invite us to his restaurant at the Schloss Schauenstein. And then on to the French Riviera, to Mirazur in Menton where we uncover the hidden side of chef Mauro Colagreco, who has developed a creative, gourmet cuisine, exalting the Mediterranean tradition in this special location hovering between the Italian and French border.
“I had athletic ambitions, and somehow working in a kitchen satisfied my need to be physically and creatively involved in whatever work I decided to devote myself to”: these are the words of the young, talented New York chef Wylie Dufresne, who talks to us in an exclusive interview. You’ll get to know the Lisbon-born chef, Nuno Mendes, who has been energizing London with orginal initiatives like The Loft Project or The Long Table. Want to know more? He explains everything here.
And did you know that the Russian chef Anatoly Komm only began cooking after an education in geophysics? And last, but not least, FDL goes East, to Japan, and visits the restaurant belonging to Yoshihiro Narisawa, which was voted best restaurant in Asia at the last World's 50 Best Restaurants Awards. The Japanese chef shared with us his source of inspiration and cooking philosophy. Soil, water, fire, charcoal and forest permeate his cuisine and his menus, reflecting Narisawa's approach to nature and environment. Don’t miss this exclusive video interview.
Photo courtesy Arzak restaurant
