Ivan Brehm is the Brazilian chef-owner of Nouri, the one-Michelin-star restaurant on Amoy Street in Singapore, and of Appetite, the research and events space he opened alongside it. He is best known for “Crossroads Cooking”, a way of building dishes around the connections that migration, trade and history have created between the world’s food cultures.
Born and raised near Sao Paulo into a family with Italian, Spanish, Syrian and Lebanese roots on his mother’s side and Russian and German roots on his father’s, Brehm left Brazil at seventeen to train abroad. He passed through three of the most influential kitchens of his generation – Mugaritz in Spain, Per Se in New York and The Fat Duck in England – before settling in Singapore and building his own restaurant around a single idea: that no cuisine exists in isolation.
TL;DR
- Brazilian chef, born and raised near Sao Paulo; left for professional kitchens abroad at age 17
- Chef-owner of Nouri (72 Amoy Street, Singapore, opened 2017) and the R&D space Appetite (opened 2020)
- Trained at Mugaritz (Spain), Per Se (USA) and The Fat Duck (UK), where he spent around four years as a development chef
- Earlier earned a Michelin star for Bacchanalia in Singapore; Nouri earned its first Michelin star in 2018
- Creator of “Crossroads Cooking” – food built on the shared connections between cultures rather than fusion for its own sake
Ivan Brehm key facts
| Born | Sao Paulo region, Brazil |
| Nationality | Brazilian |
| Main restaurant | Nouri, 72 Amoy Street, Singapore (opened 2017) |
| Michelin stars | One at Nouri (since 2018); earlier one star for Bacchanalia (2016) |
| Other venture | Appetite – interdisciplinary research and events space (opened 2020) |
| Style | “Crossroads Cooking” – cross-cultural fine dining grounded in food history |
Early life and training
Brehm grew up in the Sao Paulo region in a household where several culinary traditions met at the same table – a personal version of the cultural crossroads that would later define his cooking. He left Brazil at seventeen to pursue a kitchen career, choosing to learn at the technical and conceptual edge of fine dining. At Mugaritz, under Andoni Luis Aduriz, he absorbed a research-led, ingredient-questioning approach; at Per Se in New York he worked inside Thomas Keller’s exacting standards; and the longest, most formative stretch came at Heston Blumenthal’s three-Michelin-star The Fat Duck in Bray, where he spent roughly four years as a development chef in the experimental kitchen.
Bacchanalia, Nouri and Appetite
Brehm moved to Singapore in 2012 to build the kitchen at Bacchanalia, which earned a Michelin star under his leadership. He left in 2017 and opened his own restaurant, Nouri, on Amoy Street, which earned its first Michelin star in 2018. In 2020 he opened Appetite above Nouri as a kitchen-laboratory and cross-disciplinary venue for food, art and ideas, formalising the research instinct he had developed at The Fat Duck and turning it into the engine behind Nouri’s evolving menu.
Signature style: Crossroads Cooking
Brehm’s central idea, which he also calls “Crossroads Thinking”, is that food cultures are not isolated – that behind almost every dish there is a story of migration, trade and contact between peoples. Rather than placing two cuisines side by side as “fusion”, he looks for the historical thread that already links them and builds a dish along it. The dish he has described as the clearest expression of this is his Acaraje and Vatapa: a golden Afro-Brazilian black-eyed-pea fritter set over a Southeast-Asian-inflected turmeric-and-coconut sauce, with a creamy Brazilian salted-prawn vatapa – a single plate that traces the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean at once.
Awards and recognition
- Michelin star for Bacchanalia, Singapore (2016), as executive head chef
- First Michelin star for Nouri, 2018, retained since
- Nouri has featured on the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list
Ivan Brehm in context
Brehm belongs to a generation of chefs rebuilding fine dining around narrative and cultural research rather than national borders. His Fat Duck training places him in direct lineage with Heston Blumenthal, while his cross-cultural, history-led approach echoes the work of Gaggan Anand in Bangkok. In the Singapore and pan-Asian context, Nouri sits in the same conversation as Vicky Lau in Hong Kong and Jason Liu in Beijing and Shanghai.
Follow Ivan Brehm
Follow @ivanbrehm on Instagram
Ivan Brehm FAQ
Where is Ivan Brehm’s restaurant?
Nouri is at 72 Amoy Street in Singapore. He also runs Appetite, an R&D and events space connected to the restaurant.
How many Michelin stars does Nouri have?
One Michelin star, earned in 2018 and held since. Brehm earlier earned a Michelin star for Bacchanalia in 2016.
What is Crossroads Cooking?
Brehm’s philosophy that food cultures are connected rather than isolated. He builds dishes around the historical links – migration, trade, shared technique – between cuisines, instead of treating them as fusion.
Where did Ivan Brehm train?
At Mugaritz in Spain, Per Se in New York, and The Fat Duck in England, where he spent around four years as a development chef.
Where is Ivan Brehm from?
He is Brazilian, born and raised near Sao Paulo, and left Brazil at seventeen to work in kitchens abroad before settling in Singapore.
