Joannès Rivière

Joannès "Jo" Rivière is a French chef, restaurateur and cookbook author specializing in Cambodian cuisine. He has been regarded as the leading Western authority on Cambodian food.

Biography

Rivière was born and grew up in Roanne, France. He recalls his Christmas family dinners being a mix of French and Southeast Asian dishes, such as larp, which was introduced by his uncle who had worked as a pilot in Cambodia in the 1970s. Rivière learned cooking while working in his family restaurant. After graduating from a culinary school in France, Rivière worked as a pastry chef in Nantucket and Philadelphia in the United States for two years.

In 2005, he started working at the Hotel de la Paix's Meric as an executive sous-chef. In 2008, Periplus Publishing Group released an English-language version of his Cambodian cookbook titled "Cambodian Cooking: A humanitarian project in collaboration with Act for Cambodia". The restaurant changes its menu every two weeks to include the ingredients locally available at the moment. In 2015, Cuisine Wat Damnak was included in the 50th position of Asia's 50 Best Restaurants, becoming the first Cambodian restaurant to make the list. In the 2016 list Cuisine Wat Damnak rose to the 43rd position. The restaurant in Siem Reap was closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but reopened on 1 October 2022. In 2022, Cuisine Wat Damnak restaurants in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap were included in the No. 2 spot of the online travel magazine's Travel + Leisure "Asia’s Best Awards 2022 – Best Of Cambodia" category "Best Restaurants in Cambodia".

Books Joannès Rivière, Dominique De Bourgknecht, David Lallemand (2005). La Cuisine du Cambodge avec les apprentis de Sala Baï. Philippe Picquier Publishing Joannès Rivière, Dominique De Bourgknecht, David Lallemand (2008). Cambodian Cooking: A humanitarian project in collaboration with Act for Cambodia. Periplus Editions. .