Xaris Xygkakis

The Path

Career movement has marked Xygkakis’s work from the start, with each kitchen adding a different piece of the trade. As Sous Chef at La Casa Azul in Athens, contributor to the launch at MUN Restaurant in Paris, and later Culinary Team Lead at BCH: CLB Beach Club in Dubai, Xygkakis moved through roles that demanded adjustment, pace, and control. The throughline is not distance alone, but the ability to carry standards across cities and formats. At Bordo Mavi in Dubai, that experience now sits in the Head Chef role. The position brings the earlier work into one place: Athens for foundation, Paris for launch experience, Dubai for leadership. In practical terms, it reads as a chef whose value comes from having worked both inside established kitchens and at the point where new ones are being set.

The Work Today

Seafood is the clearest expression of Xygkakis’s current cooking at Bordo Mavi, with Nordic, Greek, and Mediterranean traditions shaping the menu around it. That combination points to a kitchen interested in restraint and balance rather than noise, with lineage used as structure rather than decoration. Hospitality, in his view, has drifted too far toward corporate language and brand image. “I believe hospitality has become too focused on corporate and brand identities, often forgetting the fundamental need to nurture guests,” he says. The point is direct: technique matters, but the work still has to reach people. For a chef, that means the dining room is not separate from the kitchen’s discipline; it is part of the same obligation. What defines the present role is the way those earlier stages remain visible inside it. Greek roots, Paris launch work, Dubai leadership, and a cooking language shaped by multiple coastal traditions all sit behind the current menu direction. The result is a chef working from clarity: what belongs on the plate, why it belongs there, and how to keep the guest in view.

In Their Words “I believe in strong convictions. No one can be forced to do anything – people will only follow, and I will follow them, as long as there are good reasons.”

Acclaim

Recognition here is built through named responsibility rather than ornament. La Casa Azul placed Xygkakis in a sous-chef role; MUN Restaurant involved him in a launch; BCH: CLB Beach Club put him in charge of a culinary team; Bordo Mavi now places him at the front of the kitchen. Taken together, those posts show a career shaped by kitchens, openings, and leadership, with seafood and Mediterranean-rooted cooking at its center. The repeated emphasis is on reasons, conviction, and care — the practical standards that give the work its shape.