Joannès "Jo" Rivière is a French chef, restaurateur and cookbook author specializing in Cambodian cuisine.
[2] He recalls his Christmas family dinners being a mix of French and Southeast Asian dishes, such as larp, which was introduced by his uncle who had worked as a pilot in Cambodia in the 1970s.
After graduating from a culinary school in France, Rivière worked as a pastry chef[4] in Nantucket and Philadelphia[5] in the United States for two years.
To raise funds for the school, he wrote a Cambodian cookbook La cuisine du Cambodge avec les aprentis de Sala Bai, which was published in 2005 and sold more than 8,000 copies in France.
Impressed by his use of lesser-known local ingredients Thompson encouraged Rivière to stay in Cambodia and open a restaurant of his own.