Ali Güngörmüs is a well-known star chef. He keeps his private life and his family largely out of the public eye. On rare occasions he reveals a few details in interviews.
Güngörmüs rarely shares his private life with the public, and there are no family photos on his Instagram account. All that is known is that he lives with his wife Stefanie Schöner in Munich, they have a son together and he has a daughter from a previous relationship.
The family pug is also called Dietmar. When Güngörmüs talks about private matters, it is more about his life story or his longing for his family, which was one of the reasons for his return to Munich.
Ali Güngörmüs was born in 1976 in Pageou, a small village in Anatolia. His father had been a guest worker in Munich since 1964, Ali’s mother and his six siblings initially stayed in their home village. There they lived on a farm.
To this day, Ali continues to emphasize what this simple and very natural life has given him: cooking with ingredients from his own farm, appreciating animal products and sustainability. In the mid-eighties, the family moved to Germany to be with his father.
Ali was ten and attended a German school, obtained his secondary school certificate and then got an apprenticeship as a chef. Not exactly the profession his parents had imagined, but Ali discovered a passion here.
Ali Güngörmüs not only finds his passion in cooking, but also success. After his apprenticeship as a chef, he was drawn to star cuisine. At the age of 19, he began cooking at the Gasthaus Glockenbach in Munich, a restaurant that has been awarded a Michelin star. There he met Karl Ederer, who recognized his potential.
Just one year later, he moved to the Tantris restaurant, which is also in Munich and has been awarded two Michelin stars. Other stops followed, for example at the Schweizer Stuben, a two-star restaurant in Wertheim.
In 2001, Güngörmüs became a chef for the first time, at just 25 years of age. He lived in Munich until 2005 and was head chef at two different restaurants. Then he moved across Germany to Hamburg to become the owner and head chef of the restaurant Le Canard Nouveau. One year later, Güngörmüs earned his first Michelin star.
Güngörmüs stayed at Le Canard Nouveau for nine years, kept the star and lived in Hamburg. During these years he also became known to a wider audience. He appeared on television shows, for example in the ZDF kitchen battle or in the television report A star chef travels through Germany. In 2014 Güngörmüs returned to his hometown of Munich.
There he opens his own restaurant and calls it Pageou. In 2022, another restaurant will follow in Munich called Pera Meze, which is reminiscent of Güngörmü’s favorite district in Istanbul.
Since 2014, he has been seen on television again and again. Whether on Grill den Henssler, Kitchen Impossible or Roadtrip Amerika – Drei Spitzenkoche auf Rädern, Güngörmüs has become an integral part of German cooking television. By taking part in Let’s Dance 2023, he is also daring to go public outside of cooking.