Stories from MAD Alumni

At just 21, Laura Cabrera found herself as head chef at Nectar, one of Mexico’s top restaurants. “I was almost crying every night,” she recalls. “I was suddenly put in this huge position, and I didn’t know what to do.” Now, more than 10 years later, Laura is running her own successful restaurant, Bredo, in Copenhagen—and she knows exactly what she’s doing. 

Stories from MAD Alumni

When asked to join the Michelin Green-starred BOCA in Dubai —leaders in sustainable gastronomy— Shiv Menon was on the next flight to the City of Gold. Now as Head of Hospitality, Wine & Beverage, he shares his experience with leading a diverse team, and why, above all else, he “believes in respecting all that comes from the Earth”.

Stories from MAD Alumni

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. “I got to learn from some Michelin-starred chefs,” she says, “but I also started to realize that I didn’t really know anything about where our food came from.” And that is where her story really begins.

Stories from MAD Alumni

We check in with César Garduño, whose career has taken some unusual turns in the last few years. The 30+year-old sommelier ended up working in a couple of places—first Dill in Iceland, now Credo in Norway– that could not be further, geographically or culturally speaking, from his home in Mexico City.

Stories from MAD Alumni

First up is chef Karyn Tomlinson, who worked at Fäviken in Sweden and Corner Table in Minneapolis before opening her first restaurant, Myriel, in 2021 in St Paul, Minnesota and quickly turning it into a semi-finalist for the James Beard Best Restaurant in the Midwest.