“When I went on Swedish TV and became and a celebrity chef in Sweden, I decided to quit,” he says, deadpan. “I didn’t want to be a celebrity.

He took an unlikely path to becoming a chef, much less a fishing nut and a tackle maker. As a kid, he fished with his grandfather some. But when he was 16, “the dark side took over,” he says.

After leading the Swedish Junior Culinary Team to victory at the 2024 IKA Culinary Olympics in Stuttgart, Germany last February, rising culinary star chef Melvin Glimstal has made his way across ...