A Swiss Michelin Kitchen Will Check Into El Gouna for Six Nights

For six nights in mid-April, the centre of gravity in The Chedi El Gouna shifts upwards, to a rooftop restaurant better known for its consistency than for hosting itinerant chefs. From 14 to 19 April, Nihon Restaurant becomes the temporary kitchen of Swiss chefs Dominik Sato and Fabio Toffolon — collectively known as The Twins — who will present a series of Michelin level dinners, each capped at around 20 guests and booked in advance. A preview service opens the residency; the rest unfolds with a deliberate, almost measured rhythm.

Sato and Toffolon arrive with the weight of The Japanese Restaurant in Andermatt behind them, where their work has earned a two Michelin stars. Their cooking is precise without being rigid, rooted in Japanese technique but filtered through European training.

At Nihon, the mechanics of that exchange are difficult to miss. The sushi counter keeps preparation in full view, foregrounding process as much as result, while the open rooftop ensures the Red Sea remains a constant presence rather than a backdrop. The restaurant’s existing focus on Japanese and pan-Asian cooking gives the residency a certain elasticity; it can stretch to accommodate the visiting chefs’ approach without losing its own internal logic.

This kind of short-term residency has become a defining feature of the hotel’s wider programme. At The Chedi El Gouna, these collaborations function as working exchanges. Visiting chefs are folded into an existing ecosystem — its ingredients, its climate, its pace — rather than insulated from it. The result, when it works, is a form of cooking that feels situated: shaped as much by where it happens as by who is doing it.