Matt Orlando

Matt Orlando was born February 7, 1977 and raised in Encinitas, California. Starting his career in San Diego, he has worked at various restaurants since the age of 16. Realizing that he wanted to pursue cooking at a higher lever, he started his fine dining career working for Francis Perrot at Fairbanks Ranch, until he moved to New York City, where he worked for Charlie Palmer’s Auerole for 2 years, before landing a position at Eric Ripert’s three-starred Michelin restaurant, Le Bernardin. After realizing his need to further refine his cooking skills, Matt moved to England to work at both at Raymond Blanc’s two-starred Michelin restaurant, Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons and Heston Blumenthal’s three-starred Michelin restaurant, The Fat Duck. 

It was while working at The Fat Duck that Matt met René Redzepi, owner and head chef of Noma in Copenhagen, Denmark (voted three times as the number one restaurant in the world by Restaurant magazine). This chance meeting led to a two-year Sous Chef position at Noma, before Matt returned back to New York City to take a Sous Chef position at Thomas Keller’s three-starred Michelin restaurant, Per Se. 

After three years at Per Se, René asked Matt to return to Noma to be the new Chef de Cuisine. After working as Chef de Cuisine at Noma for two-and-a-half years, Matt resigned his position at Noma to work on his current project: Being the owner/chef of Amass, a restaurant at Refshaleøen in Copenhagen, which opened in July of 2013.