What are your birthday plans this year?
Great question… at this time (which is about 1 month before) I’m planning to either go visit family in Israel or go away with Sophie and Aily to Portugal. Just a bit of a holiday before we need to start buying flight tickets for Aily when she turns 2 🤪

If you had to choose between only eating sweet or savoury for the rest of your life, which would you choose?
That’s easy, for those who know me know that I would always choose another starter over a pudding when eating out, hence the answer is savoury of course.

Have you been to any really nice restaurants lately?
Recently we went to the Hardwood Arms, which is a Michelin star casual pub in Fulham, the food was alright and the service was fantastic however I think everyone agreed that they could work on their cushioning a bit – all of our bums were numb within an hour!

Which food do you REALLY not like and why?
I know this is very controversial but I REALLY REALLY dislike dark chocolate. I think it’s pretentious, bitter, disgustingly trendy and simply worse than regular chocolate. As you can imagine, I did enter a few heated debates about this subject… 🤐

Now that we’re allowed to travel a bit more freely, what is the next BIG holiday that you’d like to go on?
I’ve had it in my mind for a few years now that I would really love to do a rolling transportation-camping trip like riding for a week in Mongolia or lake tour skating in one of the nordic countries. With kids and a wife that adores comfort, I’ll need to find the right time and suitable partner to tick this one off the bucket list! 

We’ve been releasing some new classes lately, which one would you like to indulge in?
Difficult…has to be between the Korean Class which has an amazing menu or the Dirty American Class which is an absolute classic. If I had to choose, think eventually I will go with the Korean simply because those are my favourite flavours.

What is one thing we’d never guess about you?
That I’m a big fan of fantasy. I love reading long, complicated and intricate high fantasy books and my favourite one of them all is The Wheel Of Time by Robert Jordan which consists of 14 books (over 1000 pages each). Quite interestingly, Robert Jordan died before he could complete the series and, with the help of his wife, chose Brandon Sanderson to come to his death bed and discuss how he’d like him to finish his series for him.

Who is the better cook, you or Sophie?
Hands down, Sophie is the better cook. Moving into a family of chefs, I certainly got my sous chef skills sharpened and I’d like to claim that I’m the number 1 sous chef around! 

In your dream restaurant what would the perfect starter, main and dessert be?
This is difficult, because it’s a dream restaurant I’ll probably mix a few specialties then… as a starter I would like to have perfectly cooked Xiao Long Bao which are these delicious pork filled dumplings with an explosion of juice in each mouthful. The perfect main for me would be a Ribeye Steak with Foie Gras on top, Salad and Roasted Garlic. My perfect pudding would then be Chocolate Lava Cake with Ice Cream – can’t beat this classic. 

Would you rather have a personal chef or personal bartender for the rest of your life?
As long as he does the cleaning as well – personal chef for sure! 

Thanks Niv! We hope you have the best birthday 🎊🎁🎂