Our Chefs
A community of professional chefs passionate about food and share their experience and “know how” with you
Steffen Achtmann
Ex head chef at one of Jamie Oliver’s restaurants “Jamie’s Italian” and with a high focus on healthy and nutritious food for the whole family. Steffen is following his passion for good food and great produce for almost 20 years.
Favourite cuisines: Italian and Thai
Favourite dish: Spaghetti Carbonara
Favourite drink: Coffee Latte
Belinda Foristal
Chef Belinda has spend decades honing her skills and teaches at Le Cordon Bleu when she is not in VIVE’s kitchen. She is incredibly passionate to share her “savoir faire” and to help our students discover their inner chefs.
Esti Garcia
Passionate and award winning pastry chef (pâtissier) and chocolatier. Esti was born in Colombia and now proudly call Australia home. He has spent his adult life working and learning with the goal of becoming one of the best in his field.
Mayumi Nagata
Multi-talented chef with a specialty in French pastry, Mayumi has accumulated an envious wealth of knowledge and culinary skills over the years working with Michelin star chefs back in France.
She teaches at Le Cordon Bleu, as well as running her own business – Mimi’s French Pastry, and when she teaches at VIVE, she is incredibly passionate in sharing her knowledge with our students.
Jessada Poomeekam
Born in Thailand, Jess left his job as an engineer and followed his passion for food and cooking. For over a decade, he has worked with chefs like Martin Boetz and done some food consulting. Jess loves sharing his passion for food and help our students understand how to build on flavours and cook delicious Asian dishes.
Jodie Tan
Born and raised in Sydney, Jodie developed her passion for cooking at a young age, and spent over a decade working at restaurants like Quay, Merivale’s Est & Ash Street Cellar, Pendolino’s, Jamie’s Italian and La Grande Bouffe.
Favourite cuisines: Italian and Japanese
Favourite dish: Roasted pork belly rice paper rolls
Favourite drinks: Coffeeeeeee … & Tequila
Jean-Luc Tan
Founder of VIVE Cooking School, Jean-Luc was born and raised in the hospitality industry. Jean-Luc’s parents run multiple restaurants in France and in Asia. He used to spend his weekends helping his parents business at a young age of 7 years old.
Favourite cuisines: Malaysian and Italian
Favourite dish: Kon Loh Mee
Favourite drink: Orangina
Julien Vasseur
With 18 years of experience from around the world, Julien has worked as head chef in a myriad of award-winning restaurants as well as being private chef for elite families internationally, and as consultant for new restaurants and food enterprise start-ups including VIVE Cooking School: Julien has contributed to the conception of the school.
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