Unconventional Chef of the Future who is pushing the boundaries
In his restaurant COB, Filip Matjaž tells guests a story about the cuisine and culture of Istria through food.
The Slovenian junior chef team, which has been together since 2012, has been picking up awards like clockwork. Among the four boys who outgrew the youth chef uniform in 2017 was Filip Matjaž, who in the very year of his fame became the ambassador of Slovenia - European Gastronomic Region 2021.
Even then, he was eager to take his >COB Restaurant, which was founded on the wings of a rich family tradition - Filip belongs to the fifth generation of restaurateurs in Portorož today - to the top. The design followed his role models Grant Achatz and Heston Blumenthal, with whom he even had the opportunity to gain a wealth of experience. From them, he took only the basic idea of transforming the restaurant into a storytelling room. He does this by cooking completely outside the box, cooking outside the box, in short, COB.
Filip's philosophy is that behind every dish there is also an unforgettable experience, which he realises through the service, the cuisine, the choice of drinks and the ambience. He discovered his difference in the excellent Istrian cuisine and its culture, which he has been elevating ever since with the help of experiential cuisine, a game of fearless plate creation, unexpected experience and constant challenge, testing the visitor's senses. The guest will have to be quite engaged and constantly interacting throughout the unforgettable excursion, which is why they will be expanding their awareness of Istria in the first place. Among other things, he will learn about the stone soup that fishermen used to cook, because it was not only fish that were entangled in their nets, but today it is prepared by Filip Matjaž. Istria's ambassador - the chef of the future, pushing the boundaries.
