Shaping the Future of Plant-Based Fine Dining: An Interview with Vegan Chef Aggeliki Charami

She is considered one of the most exciting plant-based chefs in the Alps: Executive Chef Aggeliki Charami of OMNIA plant-based restaurant, Paradiso Pure.Living Vegan Hotel and LA VIMEA Vegan Hotel. In this interview, she speaks about her awards, her vision for plant-based fine dining, and the creative freedom she found through veganism.

Green Pearls®: First of all – congratulations! You were recently named one of the Top 50 Chefs of South Tyrol 2025 by the Schlemmer Atlas and, on top, received an outstanding review of 17 out of 20 points from Gault&Millau and were included in the Restaurant Guide Identità Golose 2026. Were you actively working towards such recognition, or did these awards come as a surprise?

Aggeliki Charami: Honestly, I never worked with an award as a goal. I worked with the intention of being truthful in what I do: to create food with soul, respect, and a clear identity. These awards came as a result of my work, not as its purpose. So yes, they were a beautiful surprise, and also a confirmation that plant-based gastronomy can stand proudly at the highest level.

A Michelin star would send a strong message.

Green Pearls®: Are there other awards you dream of achieving?

Aggeliki Charami: Of course, there is the dream of a Michelin star for a plant-based restaurant in the Dolomites. Not so much for the title but for the message behind it: that plant-based cuisine can stand equally — and inspire internationally. My dream is to open paths and to be “the example.” I want our cuisine to spark conversation, drive change, and earn recognition through its substance.

Green Pearls®: Were you involved in the decision to turn Paradiso into a 100% vegan hotel and restaurant?

Aggeliki Charami: Yes, I was actively involved. Paradiso already had a strong plant-based philosophy, being a vegetarian-vegan hotel. Becoming fully plant-based was a natural step. I simply helped and showed that this transition could happen without losses but with growth, identity, and quality.

Green Pearls®: How long have you been vegan, and what led you to this decision?

Aggeliki Charami: I’ve been vegan for several years, but the decision grew inside me slowly and deeply. It began with empathy for animals and completed itself in my cooking, when I realized that creativity in the kitchen expands when you stop treating traditional ingredients as your default. It made me free. I became more creative, more sincere, more conscious

Green Pearls®: Tofu, tempeh, seitan… which one is your favorite?

Aggeliki Charami: Koji. (Editor’s note: Japanese mold used to ferment grains, rice, or soybeans) Even though it isn’t a “protein” in the classic sense. For me, it’s the most alive and expressive ingredient. Koji gives me flavour, technique, fermentation, umami, depth. It can transform any ingredient — and I’m drawn to anything that is alive, dynamic, and evolves with you.

Storytelling on the plate

Green Pearls®: What defines an “Aggeliki Charami” dish?

Aggeliki Charami: Storytelling. A certain dark subtlety. Emotion — the kind that makes you remember the dish itself and not just its taste. I work with textures, with elements of nature, with contrasts. For me, cuisine is not only flavour — it’s experience. I want each dish to tell a story without words.

Green Pearls®: “Rock star of vegan cuisine” or “mystical storyteller”?

Aggeliki Charami: If I have to choose, definitely the second. I’m not interested in the “noise.” I’m interested in the silence that happens when a dish truly moves someone.

Green Pearls®: Has South Tyrol influenced your cooking? How do you combine the Dolomites with your Greek roots?

Aggeliki Charami: The Dolomites changed me. They brought me closer to the earth, to the forest, to the cold, to wilderness and silence. But Greece lives inside me — in the memories, the herbs, the childhood summers, and the light.

Green Pearls®: How did the idea for OMNIA come about?

Aggeliki Charami: OMNIA was born from a desire to create something more: a space that wouldn’t just be a “restaurant”, but a ritual — an immersive sensory narrative. I didn’t want to simply cook well. I wanted to create something that doesn’t exist anywhere else. Something that touches the soul, not only the plate. That’s how OMNIA came to life.

Green Pearls®: Do guests always know what they are eating at OMNIA?

Aggeliki Charami: Not always — and that’s part of the experience. At OMNIA, I want people to let go, to trust, and to travel. Food becomes play, mystery, and discovery.

Green Pearls®: So, OMNIA is mystical, Paradiso vibrant and artsy. What concept did you bring to LA VIMEA?

Aggeliki Charami: At LA VIMEA I brought something more grounded, more Zen, more clean. A plant-based retreat expressed through food. Pure ingredients, meaningful depth, refined aesthetics — but in a lighter form than OMNIA.

Green Pearls®: How important is sustainability in your cooking?

Aggeliki Charami: It is fundamental. My cuisine cannot exist without respect for the earth. It’s ethics. For me, sustainability means respecting the ingredients, wasting nothing, choosing consciously, cooking with empathy — and reminding the guest that the planet is not a given.

Green Pearls®: That’s a nice closing note. Thank you very much for taking the time to do this interview.

Über das OMNIA Plant-Based Restaurant and the Green Pearls® partner hotels

OMNIA Plant-Based Restaurant

Alpe di Siusi, South Tyrol, Italy

Paradiso Pure.Living Vegan Hotel

Alpe di Siusi, South Tyrol, Italy

LA VIMEA Vegan Hotel

Naturno, South Tyrol, Italy

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