About the Author

Everyone calls me Christian. My full name is Jean Christian Rakotoarimalala.

Construction is my day job: trained as an engineer, I took over my father’s company when he retired, and I now run it from my desk, between quotes and job-site follow-ups. But that’s not what I want to talk to you about here.

In my family, cooking is almost a family business: nearly all my uncles built careers in it, my father being the exception. I myself spent two years behind the stove as a chef in the restaurant my sister and her husband opened during the Covid years. Two years of tasting, failing, starting over, and serving. Enough to understand that a good dish is never a matter of chance.

That stayed with me. Father of four boys, I travel whenever I can, and I spend the rest of my time comparing how people cook from one country to the next. That’s where World Cuisine Atlas came from. I document it with the same rigor I bring to a job site: I check my sources before publishing, and if you spot a mistake, let me know.