If your ideal Maldives trip involves more than lying on a sunlounger, this one's worth plotting around. Atmosphere Core is bringing Chef Pasquale Palamaro — the man behind Michelin-starred Indaco at Regina Isabella on the Italian island of Ischia — across three of its resorts from 13 to 23 January 2027 for a programme called Fire: Smoke: Soul.
The idea is simple: pair a Mediterranean seafood specialist with Maldivian ingredients and see what happens. Palamaro will cook alongside each resort's Executive Chef, and guests can get involved too — every stop includes a cooking class and a Four Hands Dinner where the visiting and resident chefs cook as equals. It builds on the group's Mediterranean Soul, Maldivian Heart exchange from 2025.
The tour moves across three islands. It opens at VARU by Atmosphere, where Palamaro teams up with Executive Chef Ajaya Kumar Sahoo between Charcoal, the beachside grill, and NÜ — named after the Dhivehi word for blue, a neat echo of Indaco's indigo. A GM cocktail kicks things off on 13 January, followed by dinner at Charcoal on the 14th, then the class and Four Hands Dinner at NÜ on the 15th.
Next comes OBLU SELECT Sangeli, where he joins Executive Chef Ravindra at Just Grill, right beside the lagoon — cocktail on 17 January, dinner on the 18th, class and Four Hands Dinner on the 19th. The final chapter lands at OBLU NATURE Helengeli by SENTIDO with Executive Chef Anirudh Deshpande, again at Just Grill, wrapping up with a closing dinner on 22 January and the last Four Hands Dinner on 23 January.
There's a sustainability thread running through it all: responsibly sourced catch, traceable ingredients, hyperlocal produce where possible and circular kitchen practices to cut waste. Vegetables get as much attention as the grills, and there are wine pairings plus alcohol-free options, live bands and plenty of face time with the chefs.
It's also part of a wider wave of star chefs heading to the Maldives: French Michelin-starred chef Charles Coulombeau has a three-day residency at V Villas Maldives at Mirihi in late November 2026, and Tristan Brandt — formerly Germany's youngest two-Michelin-starred chef — returns to Sirru Fen Fushi for festive dinners on 29 December 2026 and 2 January 2027. The OZEN Collection resorts are even hosting Diwali thali celebrations this November. If food is how you pick a destination, the Maldives is suddenly competing on more than beaches.
For anyone already booked at one of the three Atmosphere Core resorts in mid-January, the dinners and classes are the dates to circle. For everyone else, it's a decent excuse to time a winter escape around a table with a story.
