i. Biography
Hrvoje Kroflin’s work at ManO2 in Zagreb is built on Croatian ingredients, fermentation, and micro-seasonality. Born and raised in Croatia, and trained in Zagreb before moving through early restaurant kitchens, he developed a practice shaped by local conditions and by the discipline that comes with management responsibility. The result is a contemporary Croatian fine dining language that treats memory as material and place as a working constraint.
Coming Up
Training at The Ledbury in London and Kallmünz in Merano added precision and ambition to Hrvoje Kroflin’s Croatian foundation. Those stages sit alongside his early work at Gallo restaurant from 2004, where the practical demands of service and kitchen rhythm marked a first step into greater authority. That responsibility expanded at Mano restaurant, where he served as Executive Chef and manager from 2005–2013. The progression from training to chef, manager, and then partnership at ManO2 shows a career built through increasing control over both the craft and the operation.
Where They Are Now
At ManO2 in Zagreb, Hrvoje Kroflin works as Executive Chef – Partner, a role that joins authorship with ownership. The kitchen is described as hyper-local, micro-seasonal, and contemporary Croatian fine dining, which places the focus on timing, locality, and exactness rather than fixed form. Local ingredients remain central, but fermentation and the reinvention of long-forgotten dishes give the food a broader range of texture and reference. The current work at ManO2 reads as a close study of season and product. Kroflin treats the calendar as something active rather than static, with the menu shifting in response to what is brief, available, and most expressive. That approach keeps the cuisine rooted in Zagreb while allowing it to move in a modern fine-dining register. It is a practice of reading place carefully and making that reading visible in the plate.
Signature
Hrvoje's signature dishes include crab and shrimp salad, cold-smoked beef tartare, wild hake rillettes, dumplings stuffed with aged cheese, and lamb back cooked on open-fire with fermented black rice. Together, these dishes sketch the contours of his style: precise yet generous, rooted in familiar ingredients but willing to nudge them into new form. There is the cool brightness and delicacy of crab and shrimp salad, the deep savor of cold-smoked beef tartare, the layered richness of wild hake rillettes, the comforting density of dumplings stuffed with aged cheese, and the elemental force of lamb back cooked on open-fire with fermented black rice. Each dish suggests a chef working with restraint and intensity in equal measure, drawing flavor from technique but never losing sight of the ingredients themselves.
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Hrvoje
What is Hrvoje Kroflin's current role?
As of 2026, Hrvoje Kroflin is Executive Chef – Partner.
Where did Hrvoje Kroflin train or study?
Hrvoje Kroflin trained at The Ledbury in London and Kallmünz in Merano.
What recognition has Hrvoje Kroflin received?
Grand Chef of Tomorrow (2024).
