Kozeen Shiwan

Kozeen Shiwan (born 1989 in Sulaimania) is a Finnish chef. Shiwan is originally from the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, where he moved with his family to Turkey and from there to Lahti at the age of 9. Shiwan's father was a journalist and the family left Iraq as asylum seekers when a grenade landed in their backyard. Shiwan started his career in pizzerias in Heinola and Lahti. He went to vocational school in Heinola. In 2011 he came second in the Finnish Young Chef competition. In 2012, Shiwan graduated as a restaurant chef and started working at the Michelin award-winning Ask in Helsinki. Since then he has worked at Michelin restaurants Maaemo in Norway and In De Wulf in Belgium and as a chef at Ask from 2015 to 2017. In 2020, Shiwan appeared in the professional MasterChef Finland programme and his food installation was featured in a joint exhibition between the Design Museum and the Federation of Finnish Art and Design Industries Ornamo. Shiwan was also a finalist in the Chef of the Year competition. Encouraged by Pekka Terävä, Shiwan began to draw on influences from both Middle Eastern and Nordic cuisine for the dishes in his pop-up restaurant. Shiwan's restaurant is the first restaurant based on Kurdish cuisine in Finland. In the summer of 2021, Kozeen Shiwan's pop-up restaurant offered fine dining based on Middle Eastern cuisine. For Yle's Independence Day Linnan jatkot broadcast, he created a four-course menu.