An incredible journey

HAD anyone told chef Matt Orlando 10 years ago, that he would be married to a Danish woman, and have his own restaurant in Denmark by 2015, he would have scoffed. "Denmark? Is that the capital of Sweden?", he quips.

The 38-year-old American chef is now the owner of the one-and-a-half year old Amass in Refshalevej, a 20 minute bus ride from downtown Copenhagean. His wife, Julie, whom he met while they were both working at Noma, runs the front of the restaurant.

Chef Orlando started cooking in San Diego at 15. He worked under Charlie Palmer at Aureole in New York, before landing a position at Eric Ripert's Le Bernardin. Seeking exposure, he moved to England to work both at Raymond Blanc's two-starred Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons and Heston Blumenthal's The Fat Duck.