Jessica Natali

Coming Up

Exacting kitchen systems are often learned through repetition before they become a cook’s own working method. Early in her career, Jessica Natali worked at Noma in Copenhagen, Denmark (until 2018), in a setting known for rigor and precision. The next move took that discipline into a Japanese context: at Inua in Tokyo, Japan (from 2018), she served as sous chef and manager. Restaurant building across coasts is part of the same record. Today, Jessica is part of the trio behind the restaurant of Nudo.

Where They Are Now

Izakaya service depends on coordination between bar, kitchen, and the pace of the room. At Kōnā in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Natali leads a format where drinks do not sit outside the meal; they help set its rhythm. Japanese-inspired izakaya and omakase cooking form the main technical frame. In Natali’s work, that frame carries forward lessons from the Copenhagen counter: structure, seasonality, seafood, and restraint, without treating Japanese influence as a fixed rulebook. A second coastal register sits in Ibiza, Balearic Islands, Spain. At Nudo, Natali, Edoardo Fiaschi, and José Conde are associated with bold Mediterranean seafood with global influences, placing her Buenos Aires work alongside another seafood-led context.

In Their Words “I had written an essay on Noma, the restaurant voted as number one in the world for four years in a row.” “I had a goal: complete a 3-month internship in an establishment whose dishes I knew by heart.”