Alessandro Haab's illustrious career commenced in 1969 in his native Zürich with an apprenticeship at the Haus zum Rüden, the assembly hall of the Gesellschaft zur Constaffel and one of the historically notable buildings in the city.

From this beginning he progressed to be Executive Chef at influential establishments including a return to Zürich to head the brigade at the stylish restaurant of the same name at the Zunfthaus zur Saffran, the home of the Guild of Spice Traders (and another historically notable building).

A two-year spell as Executive Chef at the Zürich Cantonal Bank led to his first overseas’ experience at the Restaurant Operakälleren in Stockholm – a well-known, current Chaîne member establishment. After a further year as Executive Sous-Chef at the White House in Washington DC, he once again returned to Zürich to join the Jelmoli restaurant group first as Regional Director then as Managing Director.

Since 2006 Chef Alessandro has been resident in Thailand where he is the Owner/Chef of a culinary consultancy company in Bangkok.

During his long career participating in culinary competitions has been important to Alessandro. His first success was in 1981 at a regional level. He was then a member of the highly-reputed Swiss National Culinary Team from 1989-1992. During this period the team were World Culinary Champions three years in a row!

From 1993-1996 he was Team Manager and ‘culinary trainer’ of the Luxembourg National Team. He has over 50 gold medals from international culinary competitions around the world.

With his skills and experience it was a natural progression from competing to judging. In 1998 he became a WACS-certified judge for culinary competitions worldwide. As a result he has judged many international contests including the Culinary World Cup and the Culinary Olympics.

Since moving to Bangkok, Chef Alessandro’s goal is to help and train Thai culinarians to the level required to be significant names in international competitions.

In Thailand he also discovered the Chaîne des Rôtisseurs. His professionalism and dedication to the Chaîne are well known. It was a personal pleasure to have had the opportunity to meet Chef Alessandro Haab during a visit to Bangkok in September 2015.

Marie Jones
Managing Editor