Welcome to the WOT International Chef Series!
We are so excited to kick off our second Chef Series here on WOT, and this time we are heading around the globe to feature top international chefs! It’s going to be a month full of mouth-watering dishes, Instagram LIVES you don’t want to miss, and instructional videos from award-winning chefs that you won’t find anywhere else!
Each week we will present to you a new chef who will be teaching us one of their incredible recipes. Have a look at the roster below to see who you can expect!
Dominique Crenn — Chef and Owner of Atelier Crenn, Petit Crenn, Bar Crenn
Dominique Crenn is the co-owner and chef of the three-Michelin-starred restaurant Atelier Crenn in San Francisco, where artistry is at the forefront, cuisine is a craft, and the community
is an inspiration. “Atelier” can be defined as a workshop or studio, a concept that drives Chef Crenn’s modern vision for fine French cuisine. Her highly distinctive French heritage and imaginative gastronomic lair behind the stove at Atelier Crenn is a clear reflection of her unique life story.
Growing up in Brittany, France, Dominique Crenn developed a keen interest in cuisine from her parents, who celebrated fine dining. While Crenn credits her mother for her early introduction to
the culinary arts, she also attributes her culinary passion to her politician father and his best friend, a well-respected French food critic, who exposed her from a young age to many of the region’s best restaurants. It was in San Francisco where Crenn began her formal training as a chef, when in 1988, she moved from France and began working under the tutelage of San Francisco luminaries Jeremiah Tower and Mark Franz for over two years at the celebrated restaurant, Stars.
Crenn then went on to make history as the first female executive chef in Jakarta, Indonesia, where she headed the kitchen at the Intercontinental Hotel. After having spent about a decade
away from San Francisco, she returned there in 2008 to head the kitchen at Luce, in San Francisco’s Intercontinental Hotel. It was there that Crenn earned her first Michelin star in 2009 and again in 2010.
Driven by her passion to create a deeply personal project, Crenn opened Atelier Crenn, a place to express her heritage as well as an ode to “poetic culinaria,” in January 2011. Atelier Crenn achieved its first Michelin Star within a year, in October of 2011. In the following year, Crenn made history again when Atelier Crenn received its second Michelin Star, becoming the first female chef in the US to receive this honor. In November 2018, Crenn beat her own record and became the first female chef in the US to receive three Michelin Stars.
In the summer of 2015, Crenn opened her second restaurant in San Francisco: Petit Crenn, a place where she presented the core of her culinary upbringing and inspiration in a more casual setting. Petit Crenn is an ode to the home cooking of Brittany, inspired by the dinner parties held by Crenn’s mother and grandmother, where she first became mesmerized by the art of cuisine and dining.
Later that year, she published her debut cookbook: Atelier Crenn: Metamorphosis of Taste. Crenn and her teams at Atelier Crenn and Petit Crenn were featured on Netflix’s second season of the popular Netflix series “Chef’s Table.” Crenn was nominated in 2016 and 2017 by the James Beard Foundation for Best Chefs in America and received recognition from World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
In 2017, Atelier Crenn debuted at no. 83 on the organization’s list of the world’s best restaurants, in 2018 Crenn was honored with the award for Best Chef: West by The James Beard Foundation, and in 2019 Atelier Crenn was named to the World’s 50 Best Restaurants at no. 35.
In March 2018, Chef Crenn opened Bar Crenn, a wine bar situated right next to Atelier Crenn. Bar Crenn pays homage to the Parisian salons of the early twentieth century, luxurious locations in the French capital that sought to inspire political, social, and cultural conversations around fine wine and classic French food. Bar Crenn received one Michelin star in November 2018, adding yet more luster to Chef Crenn’s luminous career.
Crenn continues to be an outspoken and active member of the international culinary community, promoting innovation, sustainability, and equality through her collaborations with organizations such as the Basque Culinary Center and Pan American Development Foundation, as well as her frequent participation in various panels and summits. After years in the culinary world, Crenn has long since evolved from the little girl who sat and dined, entranced by the intricacies and beauty of fine cuisine, although it is still the memories of her childhood that continue to define and extend into her artistic culinary style.
Kevin Dundon — Irish celebrity chef, television personality and author
One of Ireland’s best-loved chefs, Kevin Dundon can usually be found busy at work in the Dunbrody House kitchens and cookery school. You will also often find him gracing the TV screens and chatting on Irish radio covering all things to do with food.
A chef with a love of locally-sourced indigenous produce Kevin considers himself spoilt with the positive bounty of fresh seafood and fantastic fruit and vegetables literally on his doorstep. Inspiration is easy to come by when you can indulge in the huge selection from the Hook Peninsula and also from Kevin’s own kitchen gardens at his hotel Dunbrody Country House. Established by Kevin and his wife Catherine in 1997, Dunbrody has become synonymous with contemporary Irish Country House cooking. Reflected in all of Kevin’s cookbooks, this passion for freshness mixed with both simplicity and flair is the signature of Kevin’s cooking.
Kevin’s also offers online courses which you can check out here.
Fabio Trabocchi — Italian chef and restaurateur
Originally from the Marche region on Italy’s Adriatic coast, Fabio Trabocchi is widely celebrated among the world’s leading restaurateurs. A Food & Wine Magazine Best New Chef and recipient of the esteemed James Beard Award, Trabocchi has passionately pursued the goal of creating a world class hospitality organization offering the finest dining experiences in the world. His growing restaurant group, with properties in Washington DC, Northern Virginia, Miami, and Venice, Italy, has brought him many accolades, yet his inspiration remains grounded in family traditions from Italy, Spain, and the United States.
Whether at his Michelin-starred fine dining flagship, Fiola; the Spanish seafood and tapas mecca, Del Mar; the glamorous destination for Italian coastal cuisine, Fiola Mare; or the three locations of his neighborhood pasta house, Sfoglina – Trabocchi’s signature remains an uncompromising commitment to quality and making guests feel special at every visit.
Since 2009, Trabocchi has built Fabio Trabocchi Restaurants into one of the preeminent restaurant groups in the world. Trabocchi has received acclaim from media including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Food & Wine, Esquire, Departures, GQ, CBS, NBC, Washingtonian, and dozens of others.
Jun Tanaka — Television chef and owner of The Ninth
Jun Tanaka began his culinary career at the age of 19 working at Le Gavroche, where he embarked on his first apprenticeship under the mentorship of the Roux brothers. Following his training in classic French cuisine, Jun went on to work with some of the country’s greatest Michelin-starred chefs at London’s most renowned institutions, including Nico Ladenis at Chez Nico, Phil Howard at The Square, and Marco Pierre White.
In 2004, Jun became the Executive Chef at Pearl Restaurant and Bar, the showpiece of the Renaissance Chancery Court Hotel in Holborn, where he was awarded three AA Rosettes. In 2006, Jun also began hosting his own television series, Cooking It, on Channel 4, and to this day still makes regular appearances on shows such as Saturday Kitchen and Masterchef: The Professionals.
Jun has also written a recipe book, Simple to Sensational, which was published by Simon and Schuster in 2009. Jun left Pearl in 2012 to travel around Europe, before opening The Ninth in 2015.
About The Ninth: The Ninth opened in November 2015 as Jun’s first solo venture, which has since won several awards including a Michelin star in its first year (which has been retained ever since), three AA Rosettes and The Caterer Magazine’s Catey Menu of the Year. The name ‘The Ninth’ refers to the number of restaurants Jun has worked with and been involved in to date. The tagline of the restaurant is ‘a contemporary neighborhood restaurant by chef Jun Tanaka serving French, Mediterranean-style sharing dishes.’
