CHEF:IN becomes a magazine

HAMBURG. One year after the launch of the first Watch List, CHEF:IN is becoming a media brand: the CHEF:IN online magazine is now live. At chefin.watch, weekly features, interviews, reports and recipes from the female-dominated world of top-tier gastronomy are published — with an international focus, editorial independence and the aim of going deeper than social media and being more accessible than traditional food magazines. “The Watch Lists bring names to the fore. The magazine tells the stories behind them,” says founder Denise Snieguolė Wachter. “We are documenting a transformation that is currently taking place — and we are helping to shape it.”

Six stories to kick things off

The first editorial issue showcases the thematic breadth with which CHEF:IN will be published weekly in future: In the editorial, founder Denise Snieguolė Wachter explains why a single figure sparked it all: four per cent of award-winning chefs in Germany are women. “That’s not a funnel. It’s a sieve. And it gets narrower with every step that leads closer to the top.” A feature profiles three women who are redefining the bar scene on Hamburg’s Reeperbahn — Bettina Kupsa (The Chug Club), Constanze Lay (The Rabbithole) and Chloé Merz (COLLAB). What unites them is the conviction “that there is more to a good drink than a recipe: it’s an attitude.”

In an interview, sommelière Anna Widmann (Ursprung, Swabian Alb) talks about work-life balance, male dominance at wine fairs and the best remedy for a hangover. “Women have children, and that often means you’re out of the game for a while. If you don’t have a strong support network, it gets difficult.” A second interview takes us to Bangkok to meet Pichaya “Chef Pam” Soontornyanakij (Potong), the first Asian woman to be named World’s Best Female Chef. On the question of what makes it harder to be a woman as a chef, she says: “It’s the guilt. Being a mother and having a family.”

In the recipe, Michelin-starred chef Sarah Hallmann (Hallmann & Klee, Berlin) pays homage to umami: a Wagyu vitello tonnato with reduced dashi, fermented chilli koji and Jerusalem artichoke crisps — a reinterpretation of the Italian classic that epitomises Hallmann’s cuisine: clear, minimalist, with depth. A profile traces the career of Emma Betti, the new head pâtissière at Tantris Maison Culinaire in Munich. Having worked in Hong Kong, Menton and Kyoto, she brings her own distinctive style: “I don’t shape things, I don’t use creams. I use as little sugar as possible. After six courses, you want something lighter.”

The editorial concept

The magazine is structured around four pillars — people, craftsmanship, change and indulgence — and features both long-form articles and shorter pieces. Photography is given equal weight to the text. Sponsored content is clearly labelled; editorial independence is paramount. Cornelia Poletto remains the brand ambassador, Anja Wasserbäch (Stuttgarter Zeitung) is Head of the Jury. And in September 2026, the first CHEF:IN Awards will take place in Hamburg — the first industry event in Germany to honour exclusively female culinary expertise. The magazine will provide editorial coverage of the preparations and the awards ceremony.