Tomasz Babinski - A Polish chef in Norway

exploring Latin America through Nordic ingredients:

His cooking is shaped by a journey that crosses continents, cultures, and personal turning points. Born in Poland, he grew up with a palate sharpened by acidity, fermentation, and bold contrasts that would later resonate deeply with the vibrant culinary traditions of Latin America.

 

After losing both of his parents at a young age, travel became his way of understanding life again. He set out to see the world they never had the chance to explore, immersing himself in more than fifty countries across every continent, including nearly all of Latin and Central America. What he found there, the generosity of the people, the warmth of the culture, the fearless use of spice, citrus, heat, colour, and contrast, felt instinctively familiar. It echoed the way he naturally cooks, expressive, layered, emotional.

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Norway became home for different reasons. He came seeking quiet, stability, and a place to rebuild. He discovered a landscape of purity, a deep respect for nature, and some of the world’s most extraordinary produce, seafood of rare quality, resilient vegetables, wild herbs, and ingredients shaped by long winters and clear waters. Over time, the Nordic pantry became not just his environment but his foundation.

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His cuisine lives at the meeting point of these worlds. He cooks with the flavours, techniques, and spirit of Latin America, its chilies, its acidity, its smoke, its brightness, its courage, but he builds it upon the ingredients of Norway. Nothing is traditional and everything is reinterpreted. He uses Peruvian and Mexican techniques on Arctic fish, Brazilian notes with Norwegian root vegetables, and Andean acidity meeting Nordic fermentation. The dishes are modern in form, driven by contrast, emotion, and precision, presented with respect for the product and a sense of play.

 

This restaurant is not a replica of Latin America. It is a personal translation, a conversation between the places that shaped him: Poland, where he learned the power of sourness and hearth, Latin America, where he found colour, warmth, and identity in food, and Norway, where he found peace, purpose, and world-class ingredients.

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His kitchen is where these influences coexist. It is where travel becomes technique, memory becomes flavour, and local produce becomes part of a larger story. The goal is simple, to honour the regions that inspired him, elevate the ingredients that surround him, and offer a cuisine that is personal, contemporary, and impossible to label except as his own.