John Regefalk

He was born in Sweden, in Skåne Tranås, a small village in the south of the country, in 1980. At 16, he first entered the kitchen of a restaurant, the Brummers Krog in Skåne Tranås. He had to replace the dishwasher, but he also developed a curiosity for food processing, so that he spent every spare minute peeling potatoes or straining sauces. He thus stood out as a cook, abandoning for ever his potential career as a photographer. The desire to learn the trade was predominant, so he sought work in ever different restaurants to approach equally different cooking styles. At the age of 19, he left for Spain. Since then, his rhythms have been marked by alternating between periods of intense work and others of travel oriented towards different worlds and cultures. India, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Mexico and all of Central America. Almost a year of travelling and 17 countries visited.

On his return to Sweden, he dived into the new Nordic cuisine. He spent a year in the restaurants of Anders Vendel, one of the most important chefs in Sweden at the time, discovering innovation, original ideas, techniques and raw materials previously unknown to him. The original tastes and Swedish tradition evolved to take on hitherto unknown characteristics. But soon, the idea of getting to know other places led him to Portugal, to Rome, where he worked at Antico Arco and at Metamorfosi, to Japan, in the kitchens of the Nihonryori Ryugin restaurant of Michelin-starred chef Seiji Yamamoto, to Noma in Copenhagen, and to the Nordic Food Lab division in particular.

Then came the proposal from the Basque Culinary Center in San Sebastián in Spain, the most important international centre for the study and teaching of the culinary arts: he worked there for three years as a lecturer, giving theoretical and practical courses on contemporary techniques, culinary creativity, international gastronomy and catering trends. Then the BCC director presented him with another challenge - managing the team of chefs at BCC Innovation. This is a unique opportunity, because few research centres in the food world have a team of chefs working alongside nutrition scientists or food technologists.

At BCC Innovation Regefalk specialises in the conceptualisation, development and promotion of new food products designed according to market trends and consumer perceptions, using both traditional and avant-garde culinary techniques. He devotes much of his time to research in the field of scientific gastronomy, experimentation of culinary techniques and new raw materials, such as microalgae or microproteins.