He booked a one-way ticket to Thailand the day after finishing high school. Now he's a top Bangkok chef
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The Swedish-born executive head chef of Nordic-Asian restaurant Villa Frantzen explains how being forced to give up Muay Thai eventually led him to the kitchen.
Nilas Corneliussen doesn’t need much sleep. In fact, the 32-year-old finds it unsettling when a city turns quiet at night.
“I’m both a night and morning person,” says the Swedish-born executive head chef of Nordic-Asian fusion restaurant Villa Frantzen, one of only two Nordic restaurants in Thailand’s capital.
“I much prefer to be in a dynamic city that never sleeps, and Bangkok gives me that.”
But while Thailand had long appealed to him, even in his youth, Corneliussen says he never imagined a career in cooking.
Instead, he was drawn to Muay Thai, or Thai boxing, the striking art known for beautiful sequences of powerful punches, axe-like knees and elbows followed by lightning-fast kicks.
It was that instant confirmation of being better than his opponent that absorbed him; that immediate result based on ability and skill. On high school breaks, he even travelled solo to Thailand to join Muay Thai training camps.
“During those trips, I fell in love with the country,” Corneliussen tells CNN Travel.