5 Questions with Garima Arora

5 Questions with Garima Arora

When Indian-born chef Garima Arora came to MAD Academy in 2019, Gaa, her Bangkok restaurant, was barely two years old. But she was already piling up the accolades. Last year was the best ever: not only did Gaa make it onto the World’s 50 Best List, but also received...
5 Questions with Shiv Menon

5 Questions with Shiv Menon

After country-hopping since he was 16, from the Seychelles to France, India to the Maldives, two things were important to Shiv Menon: diving and biodynamic wine. So, naturally, when asked to join the MICHELIN Green-starred BOCA in Dubai —leaders in sustainable...
5 Questions with Sarah Knight

5 Questions with Sarah Knight

Sarah Knight’s resume would read like the title of a John Le Carré novel, if Le Carré wrote about food: Waiter, Chef, Butcher, Rancher. But in that list of jobs is a far more interesting story of an aimless American teenager who fell into restaurant work as a...
5 Questions with César Garduño

5 Questions with César Garduño

Each month, Digest interviews one of MAD Academy’s alumni. For this issue, we check in with César Garduño, whose career has taken some unusual turns in the last few years. For one thing, the 29-year-old sommelier ended up working in a couple of places—first Dill in...
5 Questions with Karyn Tomlinson

5 Questions with Karyn Tomlinson

Each month, Digest interviews one of MAD Academy’s alumni. First up, chef Karyn Tomlinson, who worked at TK in Minneapolis and Fäviken in Sweden before opening her first restaurant, Myriel. Two years later, Myriel has already become a semi-finalist for the James Beard...