i. Biography
Walkyria Fagundes’ work is built on the sort of kitchen discipline that shows up in pace, plating, and service. At AUDACE in Tokyo, Japan, she works as chef; at AE! Café & Cozinha in São Paulo, she holds co-founder status. The combination points to a practice that moves between execution and ownership, with each role carrying the demands of a different kitchen system. Her background across formal study, Madrid hotel work, and named restaurants has given her a method grounded in technique and precision rather than gesture.
The Climb
University Anhembi Morumbi, Italian Culinary Institute for Foreigners (ICIF), and Le Cordon Bleu form the educational base behind Walkyria Fagundes’ career. Taken together, those schools indicate a route shaped by structured instruction and international reference points, the kind of training that builds range without losing control of fundamentals. From there, her early professional steps led into hotel and restaurant environments where consistency mattered as much as speed. The hotel at Westin Palace in Madrid was one of the first settings to shape Walkyria Fagundes’ working rhythm, and the demands of that operation are visible in the steadiness that follows her through later roles. Nerua, Quique Dacosta, Épice, and Gelato Boutique each mark another stop in a career formed by kitchens with exacting standards. The pattern is consistent: precision under pressure, composure in service, and the ability to absorb method from one room before moving to the next. That accumulated experience now sits inside her own projects. Since 2019, Walkyria Fagundes has been co-founder of AE! Café & Cozinha, while also working as chef at AUDACE. The shift from working within other kitchens to carrying responsibility for her own venture gives the career a second register: not only technical range, but authorship over how that range is used.
Today
Since 2019, Fagundes has been co-founder of AE! Café & Cozinha in São Paulo, Brazil. In describing its opening, she framed the idea in deliberately Brazilian terms, with language that made the identity of the place feel as important as the menu: > When we opened it, we wanted something Brazilian and then we said: "Why not the Tupi-Guarani name?" That choice makes the São Paulo project legible as a statement of naming as well as service. The reference to Tupi-Guarani and the insistence on something Brazilian place the work in a cultural frame, not just a commercial one. Alongside that role, she works as chef at AUDACE in Tokyo, Japan, extending the same discipline into a different city and a different operating context.
Signature
Walkyria's signature dishes include vitello tonnato.
Recognition
What is notable in Walkyria Fagundes’ record is not abstraction but sequence: named schools, a Madrid hotel, and a run of kitchens that all required quick adaptation and exact standards. Her own line on pressure is unusually direct, and it fits of a chef working across continents while holding multiple responsibilities: > The pressure itself and the cameras also were not two things that scared me. The statement is plain, and that is what gives it weight. It reads as a working attitude rather than a performance of confidence: pressure is present, cameras are present, and the work goes on. In Walkyria Fagundes’ case, the career is defined by that same steadiness—movement through institutions and cities, with technique remaining the common language.
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Walkyria
What is Walkyria Fagundes's current role?
As of 2026, Walkyria Fagundes is chef.
Where did Walkyria Fagundes train or study?
Walkyria Fagundes trained at University Anhembi Morumbi and Italian Culinary Institute for Foreigners (ICIF).
