Born on January 31st 1973
His ascension to the third step of the podium of the Bocuse d’Or came as a surprise to some! How could this windswept island at the northern tip of Europe, in the middle of the Atlantic, produce such excellent chefs? That’s forgetting that Hákon Már Örvarsson, a chef fuelled by passion for his trade and trained at the Iceland Hotel School, comes from a country where people like to get the best out of simple top-quality raw materials. He began his career at the top at the Holt Hotel in Reykjavik, part of the Relais & Châteaux chain, before leaving to train for the Bocuse d’Or with Léa Linster; it is difficult to find a better place in which to train. He went back there after winning the Bocuse de bronze to work as head chef until December 2002. He then returned to his roots and worked as executive chef at the Nordica Hotel. He imposed a personal style on the cuisine served at the Vox restaurant, based on Icelandic products with a few European influences and a dash of Asia. His intuition reigns whatever dish he may be concocting. This same intuition caused him to take a break to return to his origins. He decided to promote the fish of his country around the world and spend several months in the wild in a kind of restaurant-shack where he welcomes fishermen from all over the world to discover the rivers of Iceland. This is where he extends his creativity to the very limit in direct contact with the environment.
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source : 34 chefs, 34 recettes
