Chantelle Nicholson, Niclas Jönsson and Jamie Lee headline Soneva’s year-end gastronomy programme
Soneva has announced a new series of chef residencies as part of its latest Soneva Stars calendar, bringing international culinary talent to its Maldives resorts as the programme continues through the final months of 2026.
The culinary line-up includes Chantelle Nicholson, Niclas Jönsson and Fiskebar’s Jamie Lee, with the visiting chefs set to present special dining experiences alongside a wider Soneva Stars programme spanning sport, astronomy, craftsmanship and wellbeing.
For chefs and food and beverage professionals in the Maldives, the culinary component provides another example of how visiting chef programmes are being incorporated into resort dining, allowing international culinary perspectives to be introduced within island kitchens and guest experiences.
Nicholson will be in residence from 22 October to 6 November. Known for ingredient-led cooking and an emphasis on sustainable gastronomy, her residency brings a culinary approach closely connected to produce, sourcing and responsible food practices.
Ingredient-led cooking places the quality and character of produce at the starting point of menu development rather than treating ingredients simply as components of a predetermined dish. For resort kitchens, where chefs work with both imported products and ingredients available within the island environment, that approach can also encourage closer consideration of seasonality, provenance, waste reduction and the way individual products are used across a menu.
Sustainability has become an increasingly important part of professional kitchen operations in the Maldives, where the logistics of importing ingredients, managing food waste and operating within sensitive island environments create particular challenges.
A chef residency built around such principles can therefore offer more than an individual dining event. It can also create opportunities for culinary teams to consider how techniques, menu planning and ingredient utilisation can respond to those operational realities.
Alongside Nicholson, Niclas Jönsson will also be part of the programme from 22 October to 6 November.
Jönsson is presented within the Soneva Stars calendar as a proponent of elevated Scandinavian dining, bringing another culinary perspective to the season.
Scandinavian cooking has become associated internationally with a strong emphasis on ingredients, preservation, seasonality and restrained presentation. Within a Maldives context, visiting chefs working from this culinary tradition can provide an opportunity to explore how such principles translate to tropical produce, seafood and the conditions of a resort kitchen.
Rather than simply reproducing dishes from another region, chef collaborations can become most relevant when visiting talent and resident culinary teams work within the ingredients, facilities and environment of the host destination.
This exchange can influence everything from menu composition and preparation methods to plating and service.
Later in the year, Jamie Lee of Fiskebar will take up a residency from 14 to 26 December, bringing a seafood-focused dimension to Soneva’s festive-season culinary programme.
His visit comes at a period when Maldives resort kitchens are entering one of the most demanding stretches of the year, as regular restaurant operations run alongside festive dinners, special events and guest experiences.
Soneva Chief Executive Officer Neil Gallagher highlighted Lee’s culinary contribution while describing the wider philosophy behind the programme.
“The most memorable moments unfold through the power of human connection,” Gallagher said. “With Soneva Stars, our guests train with Andy Cole, sit with Tim Peake to find out what it’s truly like up there and get a fresh taste of the ocean’s bounty with Jamie Lee. These experiences spark conversations and memories that stay with them long after they leave.”
For culinary professionals, Lee’s residency is particularly relevant given the importance of seafood to resort dining in the Maldives.
The surrounding ocean plays a central role in the country’s culinary identity, while seafood also features prominently across international menus served in resorts. Visiting chefs with a strong seafood focus can therefore work within a category already familiar to local and resident chefs while bringing different techniques, flavour combinations and presentation approaches.
The three chef residencies also demonstrate the increasingly experiential nature of resort gastronomy.
A visiting chef programme is not limited to placing a recognised name on a menu. Successful residencies require coordination between the visiting chef and the existing kitchen brigade, including sourcing, recipe adaptation, mise en place, equipment requirements, service planning and communication with front-of-house and beverage teams.
Resident chefs must often interpret unfamiliar preparations within the operational structure of their own kitchens, while visiting chefs need to understand what ingredients and equipment are realistically available on an island.
This collaborative process can become an important form of professional exchange.
For junior chefs in particular, the opportunity to observe different approaches to preparation, organisation and service can offer exposure that extends beyond the individual event. Senior members of a brigade can similarly use such collaborations to compare techniques and consider how elements of the visiting chef’s philosophy might be applied within existing restaurant concepts.
Soneva has long positioned guest experiences around direct interaction with specialists from different disciplines, and the latest Soneva Stars calendar continues that approach.
Beyond gastronomy, the programme will bring British astronaut Tim Peake to Soneva Fushi from 19 to 29 December for talks, interactive sessions and stargazing experiences.
The sporting calendar includes former Manchester United striker Andy Cole from 25 October to 1 November, former world No. 8 tennis player Marcos Baghdatis from 25 October to 5 November and ATP player Karen Khachanov from 12 to 22 November. Olympic medallist and world champion decathlete Leo Neugebauer is also part of the programme.
Wellbeing specialists appearing through the season include facialist Sarah Chapman, osteopath Hortensia Corredoira, East Asian healing specialist Alexander Scrimgeour, performance coach JP Liendi, Bodyism’s Nathalie Schyllert and wellbeing expert Richie Norton.
Soneva Fushi’s glass studio will meanwhile host artists Adam Holtzinger and Susan Špiranović, while astronomers Dr James Gilbert and Dr Lars Lindberg Christensen will contribute to the resorts’ astronomy programme.
The breadth of the calendar reflects Soneva’s intention to build guest experiences around interaction with practitioners rather than passive entertainment.
For the culinary programme, that philosophy translates naturally into chef residencies, where guests can experience the work of visiting chefs while the resort’s own food and beverage teams engage directly with their methods and ideas.
Nicholson’s focus on ingredient-led and sustainable cooking, Jönsson’s Scandinavian perspective and Lee’s seafood-driven approach provide three different culinary directions within the same programme.
Together, the residencies bring attention to areas that continue to shape contemporary professional kitchens: ingredient quality, responsible sourcing, the relationship between place and menu, and the value of knowledge exchange between chefs from different culinary backgrounds.
For chefs working in the Maldives, international residencies such as Soneva Stars can also serve as a reminder that some of the most valuable outcomes of visiting-chef programmes happen away from the dining room.
Behind each special menu is a period of collaboration between chefs, cooks, pastry teams, purchasing departments, stewards and front-of-house professionals. Recipes are tested, ingredients adjusted and service systems refined before the final dishes reach guests.
That process can leave a longer professional legacy than the individual dinner itself.
As Soneva Stars continues through the end of 2026, the programme will therefore bring together not only internationally recognised guests and resort visitors, but also culinary teams working behind the scenes to translate the ideas of visiting chefs into the Maldives island dining environment.
