As a kid I dreamed of being a pilot. Years after, I started to be fascinated by food and the way food looks and how food can create or convey emotions. Probably the most iconic image in my mind is the garlic slicing with a razor blade in Scorsese’s Goodfellas. Still, it never ever crossed my mind I will be cooking professionally or I will be styling food.

I didn’t become a pilot as I dreamed but, instead, I started working in advertising, together with creative and marketing people,in a time when the industry was booming in Romania. Working for 16 years in PR, BTL, ATL, Planning and Strategy  gave me the full understanding of the industry, delivering on client brief, focusing on solving clients demands, being relevant for the final consumer.

All this time, I was cooking for my pleasure, having the feeling of the painter in front of the canvas, creating flavors with colors and textures. In 2009, when I became a father, I changed my profession as well, opening my own restaurant in a different country, where I was speaking a different language. In my restaurant in Budapest, I started learning and experimenting what professional cooking means, and began my long journey towards mastering cooking techniques.

I have been a cook for 11 years now, still learning, trying to be creative and inviting people to experience the diverse culinary traditions that are blended in my cooking style and my vision for culinary art.

A life changing encounter with a brilliant food photographer turned my attention to foodstyling. Knowledge, beauty, freshness, harmony, expression, details, crafting, composition were separate elements into my work and now I figured out how to put them together.

Phone: +49 173 344 6522

e-mail: stefan.pop@gmail.com