Dylan Watson-Brawn never went to school. As a teenager, his father took him on holiday to Japan and recognised a budding passion for the art of cooking. It made such an impression that Dylan ended up staying there to work as an apprentice in Nihonryori Ryugin: a three-Michelin star restaurant in Tokyo’s Roppongi district.
That’s where the Canadian learned an appreciation for produce and craft. Working long, punishing days with the highest quality ingredients available helped school Dylan in the purity behind minimalist gastronomy – a learning-curve he furthered at Copenhagen’s Noma, another of the world’s top restaurants.
Today the chef is trying to take things a step further in Berlin. The 25-year-old is drawing from everything he’s learned along the way and fusing it with the organic farming culture he grew up around in Vancouver.
Dylan’s aim is to pioneer a new wave of breakfast culture. To do that, he believes in championing ‘food transparency’ – keeping things simple by using locally sourced, high quality ingredients and then letting nature do the rest.
Dylan (centre) checks out produce at the market.
Champions of Breakfast, a new series from Amuse and Nespresso, tells stories of extraordinary breakfast routines through the eyes of entrepreneurial spirits. In episode three, Dylan takes us through his process of bringing friends together over an incredible morning meal.
It boils down to cutting the middle-man out: buying direct from farmer’s markets, where you can tell who cares about their produce, and even foraging for ingredients in the wild.
In this case, Dylan and friends take a traditional German breakfast – porridge, homemade rye bread and raspberry jam – and apply their philosophy of freshness.
That attention-to-detail extends to the coffee too: the floral spice of Bukeela ka Ethiopia from Nespresso being a perfect pairing for the raspberry jam. It’s a deceptively simple balance proving that when the ingredients are pristine, less is always more.
Check out Dylan Watson-Brawn’s breakfast recipe.
Watch more Champions of Breakfast episodes or discover the full Nespresso range of coffee profiles here.
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