Mārtiņš Rītiņš

Mārtiņš Ints Rītiņš (19 October 1949 – 11 February 2022) was a British-born Latvian chef, restaurateur, businessman, culinary TV presenter and author. He was also the President of Latvian Slow Food Association and has been called "The Father of Modern Latvian Cuisine".

Biography Rītiņš was born in 1949 at a refugee camp in Nantwich, Cheshire, to Latvian parents who had fled Latvia from the advancing Red Army at the end of World War II. He grew up in Corby, Northamptonshire before moving to London to become a chef.

In 1993, he moved to Latvia and founded the restaurant Vincents a year later, becoming its director and executive chef. In 1995, Rītiņš started hosting his own cooking television show on LTV Kas var būt labāks par šo? ("What Could Be Better Than This?"), where he travelled around the world and introduced foreign ingredients and dishes to the Latvian audience.

In 2007, Rītiņš received the Order of the Three Stars for his "service to gastronomy and culinary education in Latvia". In 2015, Kas var būt labāks par šo? was discontinued due to disagreements between Rītiņš and the director of the show. Three years later Rītiņš returned to television with a television cooking show on LNT called Tuč, tuč Rītiņš.

On 1 July 2017, he retired as the director of Vincents, but returned to it in 2020. The same year his biography De Profundis written by a close family friend Linda Apse was published.

Cooking style and influences Rītiņš has described his cooking style as "fine dining influenced by Escoffier". Rītiņš has named Alice Waters and his first boss Harvey Smith, as his culinary mentors.

Rītiņš is also credited for reintroducing asparagus in Latvian cuisine, which largely fell out of use after the Soviet occupation of Latvia.

Books Mārtiņš Rītiņš (1997). Mielasts ar Mārtiņu. Jumava.