Chef Francoise Brana

My name is Francoise Brana and I am a Culinary Chef.

I have worked in restaurant and hotel kitchens since high school and have been obsessed with food since I can remember. I was born in Los Angeles in a Chilean family. We traveled frequently due to my fathers’ passion and free spirit. I grew up in Southern California, Mexico, Chile, Argentina and Italy. My parents finally settled back in San Diego and I moved to college to study Anthropology.

The kitchen was my calling and my journey continued back to Europe where I ‘stagaire’d in France and worked through-out Italy learning as much as I could of how to make amazing cuisine from scratch. I left my heart in Rome and moved back to Los Angeles in 2008 to work in some of the best fine dining restaurants and five star hotels.

I began working privately in 2012 when a client offered me an amazing opportunity to become his travelling chef. This introduced me to another extreme of cooking and sourcing. I joined the world of yachting and learned how to impress the most selective customers on a bare island with nothing but palm trees and shipping rare ingredients across the borders. Cooking has led me to travel and travel has led me to cook. Due to extensive travel with my family, I developed a global palate at a very young age. This search for new flavors is reflected often in my cuisine as well as the search for freshness.

Feeding people and cooking brings people together and creates memories. I love teaching people about food and inspiring families to try new flavors.