Our Chefs
Meet the Chefs Behind The Chef Tours
At The Chef Tours, our chefs are more than culinary experts—they’re storytellers, guides, and passionate hosts who turn every food tour into an unforgettable journey. Each brings a unique background, deep knowledge of their city’s food scene, and a shared mission: to connect people through exceptional food experiences.
From Paris to Seville, Berlin to Istanbul, meet the diverse and talented chefs who shape our tours with creativity, authenticity, and heart.
Chef PJ
Chef PJ
Chef PJ is a celebrity Chef in Paris and a legend in the tourism industry. A founder of The Chef Tours PJ had previously worked for Eating Europe and Secret Food Tours. No longer wanting to follow the structure set by outsiders, he partnered with Chef Karl to reinvent food tourism. His restaurant Le Petit Moulin in Montmartre has a party every night. Join his tour and join the party.
Chef PJ’s tours are not just about food—they’re about storytelling, community, and experiencing Paris like a local. His passion for sharing the city’s culinary secrets has earned him acclaim from guests worldwide, making his tours a must-do for food enthusiasts visiting Paris.
Chef Karl Wilder
Chef Karl Wilder is a culinary innovator whose career spans continents and cuisines. From his roots in New Orleans, where he reimagined Southern classics at The Country Club, to launching the acclaimed Empire Biscuit in New York City, Wilder has consistently pushed the boundaries of traditional cooking.
Previously, with both Eating Europe and Secret Food tours, he, along with PJ, set out to redefine what food tourism means. His passion for authentic, immersive food experiences led him to co-found The Chef Tours, offering intimate culinary journeys in cities like Paris, Seville, Istanbul and Berlin. In Berlin, his tours blend historical exploration with gourmet dining, reinventing food tourism.
Beyond the kitchen, Wilder is an advocate for food accessibility, having undertaken a project to live on a food stamp budget to raise awareness about food insecurity. He’s also an author, with his novel It’s Not Always Murder published in 2024, You Can Get A Man With A Gun published in 2025, both by Vintage Pulp Press.
Based in Berlin, Chef Karl Wilder continues to craft experiences that are as rich in story as they are in flavour, inviting travellers to taste the world through his unique lens. He is the proud human father of Milou, the company mascot.
Chef Milou is our company mascot and travels with Chef Karl, no tour goes on sale without his seal of approval.
Chef Crestani
Always eager to try new things, João started his career in Brazil working mostly in Italian-inspired restaurants. He became head chef of important Italian venues in his hometown, Porto Alegre, such as Sette Pasta Bar and Vincenzo Spaghetteria. Two years ago he moved to Seville, looking for further inspiration and new gastronomic adventures, where he acquired a deep knowledge of the city’s tastes.
With 7 years of hands-on, kitchen experience, and with a History degree under his belt, Chef Crestani is the best person to guide you through Seville’s exciting cultural melting pot!
Chef Basak
Meet Chef Feyza
If you’re looking for a generic Istanbul food tour led by someone reciting memorised facts with a flag in one hand and a headset in the other, this is not that experience.
Chef-Guide Feyza is a licensed English-speaking Istanbul tour guide, a former professional chef, and a lifelong local who brings together two worlds most tours never truly combine: deep culinary expertise and immersive cultural storytelling.
Born and raised in Istanbul and based in Kadıköy, Feyza offers the kind of insider perspective travellers spend years trying to find on their own. She doesn’t just know where to eat in Istanbul. She understands the history, traditions, techniques, neighbourhood culture, and hidden culinary rituals behind the city’s food scene in a way only a trained chef and experienced guide can.
Her journey began at one of Türkiye’s leading Tourism and Hospitality Schools, where she graduated at the top of her class, specialising in culinary arts. From there, she spent more than eight years working inside luxury hospitality and professional kitchens, including 5-star hotels and respected restaurants across Istanbul. She trained extensively in meze, cold kitchen preparation, and advanced through multiple culinary stations as a Chef Tournant, developing the kind of technical understanding that transforms the way guests experience Turkish cuisine.
Her culinary career also took her internationally to the United States, where she worked in a professional kitchen environment and expanded her global perspective on food, hospitality, and restaurant culture.
But Feyza didn’t stop there.
After her years as a chef, she graduated with top honors in Tourism Guidance and became a licensed professional guide, spending the last seven years leading high-end cultural, historical, archaeological, and culinary tours throughout Türkiye. That rare combination of chef training and professional guiding experience allows her to create something far beyond a typical Istanbul food tour.
Her experiences are designed for curious travellers who want more than surface-level sightseeing and tourist restaurants. Through hidden local eateries, neighborhood institutions, vibrant markets, and lesser-known culinary stops, Feyza introduces guests to the Istanbul locals actually experience. Along the way, she shares the stories, traditions, migration influences, and cultural history that shaped one of the world’s most fascinating food cities.
This is not simply about eating well, although you absolutely will.
It’s about understanding why Istanbul’s food culture is unlike anywhere else on earth.
With Feyza, guests explore the real Istanbul through the eyes of someone who has lived it, cooked it, studied it, and guided travelers through it professionally for years. Her tours are intimate, deeply local, chef-driven, and designed for travelers seeking an authentic Istanbul culinary experience beyond the tourist trail.
For travelers searching for the best food tour in Istanbul, a chef-led Kadıköy food tour, or a truly authentic culinary experience in Türkiye, Chef-Guide Feyza delivers something increasingly rare in modern travel: genuine expertise, real local connection, and unforgettable food experiences that stay with guests long after the trip ends.
