Chef and baker
Speaker
Sigurour Rafn Hilmarsson
Chef and owner of Laugarvatn Fontana Geothermal Spa (Laugarvatn, Iceland)
“Siggi” Rafn Hilmarsson got into the cooking trade in restaurants and hotels in Nordic countries, but he went back to his native Iceland to open a spa and bake bread with volcano lava.
Sigurour “Siggi” Rafn Hilmarsson carved out a professional career as chef at hotels and restaurants for 25 years. Most of this was in Iceland, although he also worked in Denmark and Norway. Since 2012 Siggi has been managing the Laugarvatn Fontana Geothermal Spa in Iceland's Laugarvatn lake where he grew up, a place to take in the country's genuine nature experience, and also its gastronomic experience, as you relax in warm geothermal pools and natural steam baths.
Another attraction is the rye bread made by Hilmarsson in his geothermic bakery just a few kilometres from the thermal facility. Icelandic rye bread (“rúgbrauð” in Icelandic) is dark, dense, and quite sweet. It is traditionally baked in a pot, or steam-cooked in wooden barrels or plastic bags, which are buried close to thermal springs and left to cook for about 24 hours in natural heat.
