Chef Marianna Farag

Marianna’s culinary identity is as vibrant and layered as the life she has lived, shaped by years of cooking and cultural immersion across Europe, North America, the Caribbean, and the Middle East. Her cuisine is rooted in curiosity, intuition, and a deep respect for ingredients, drawing inspiration from the places, people, and traditions that have marked her journey.

Specializing in colorful, plant-based cuisine, Marianna brings extensive knowledge of vegetables, grains, herbs, and spices, honed through years of hands-on experience. She is the former owner and head chef of the Jamaica-based restaurant Marianna’s Kitchen, where she cooked a daily-changing lunch menu for over five years, developing more than 1,300 unique menus. Alongside her restaurant work, she has built a career as a private chef, recipe developer, cookbook author, and food anthropologist, collaborating with local rum companies and the largest heirloom seed bank in the Western Hemisphere.

Marianna’s education did not come from traditional culinary schools, but from lived experience—her heritage, extensive travels, and close relationship with food cultures around the world. Her cooking weaves together Middle Eastern and Mediterranean roots with the depth of Indian, Caribbean, and Southeast Asian flavors, always anchored in seasonality, nature, and an intuitive understanding of ingredients.

At the heart of Marianna’s work lies a profound belief in food as one of the most powerful human connectors. For her, cooking is about far more than sustenance—it is nourishment for the soul, a source of joy, color, and quiet wonder. Love is the essential ingredient in every dish, and without it, cooking loses its meaning.

She specializes in soulful, nourishing meals that feel both comforting and refined, whether for intimate dinners or special occasions. Each menu is thoughtfully designed to create a relaxed yet elevated dining experience—food that brings people together, sparks connection, and leaves a lasting memory.