Damir Tomljanović’s professional journey began in 1990, working in both domestic and international hotels. Due to the fast-paced nature of daily work, he quickly transitioned to a la carte restaurants within hotels. When he moved abroad to Berlin in 1997, he continued his path in a la carte restaurants. After establishing himself in this line of work, in 2003 he became part of the team at the Kukuriku restaurant in Fortica, Kastav, under the mentorship of chef Zdravko Tomšić, in what was then the leading slow food restaurant in the region. Over the following years, Tomljanović continued to develop professionally, changing the direction of his career. In 2007, he took on his own project in Zadar, managing the ‘Foša’ restaurant as both chef and manager. With ‘Foša,’ he became part of the JRE family of restaurants and vice president of the association. Over the next years, he worked in two more restaurants – in 2017 as kitchen chef at ‘Bevanda’ in Opatija, and in 2020 at Villa Ariston.
In 2018, Tomljanović started his consulting and hospitality company, ‘Kužinavanje d.o.o’. While his focus remained on active cooking as a chef consultant, he also expanded his scope of work. For the past five years, he has worked as a mentor chef at the Aspira University, presented equipment and systems for kitchen work, served as a consultant for several Croatian restaurants and hospitality companies, and collaborated on projects designing hospitality facilities. He became known to the wider public as a judge on the entertainment show MasterChef.
