Ixta Belfrage

Ixta’s style of cooking draws inspiration from three countries she grew up travelling to, eating in and obsessing over. Brazil (where her mum is from), Italy (where she lived as a child) and Mexico (where her granddad lived). She began her culinar career at Ottolenghi's NOPI restaurant, before moving to the Test Kitchen, where she worked for Yotam Ottolenghi for five years, contributing to his columns in the Guardian and The New York Times. Ixta was Yotam's co-author on bestselling Flavour (2020) before publishing her first solo cookbook: MEZCLA (2022), which was nominated for 'best debut cookbook' at the Fortnum & Mason Awards and 'best international cookbook' at the James Beard Awards. MEZCLA was named one of the best cookbooks of 2022 by The Independent, The Times, Bon Appetit, Amazon, Spectator and Squaremeal.

In 2021 and 2022 Ixta was named ‘one of the most influential women in food’ by Code Hospitality. Ixta is a contributing editor at Elle Magazine and has also written for The Guardian, Suitcase Magazine and Pit Magazine.