When Benjamin Delfi was in the midst of making his dream of opening his own restaurant a reality, he was diagnosed with rectal cancer. Now that his treatment is over, there is room for those dreams again.
Photo: Martin Stenmark
Text: Annika Lund, in translation from Swedish. First published in the magazine Medicinsk Vetenskap no 3/2026.
“I grew up in a family of restaurateurs where everyone shares a passion for food. About ten years ago, I started posting cooking videos on YouTube. I cooked Persian dishes with my mum and made vegan kebabs for my friends, always with a light-hearted and fun approach.
During the pandemic, I was furloughed from my job and began making unusual, fun pizzas. I made tikka masala pizza, Persian pizza and blueberry pizza.
Suddenly, I had more than 200,000 followers and became known as Pizza-Benji. That made it possible for me to start a restaurant on Gotland that was open during the summer. In the summer of 2025, we were open for the fourth consecutive year, and everything was going well. I was looking forward to the rest of the year: I was going to buy a flat and open a new restaurant.
That was not how things turned out. During the summer, I noticed bleeding from my rectum. It turned out to be rectal cancer.
It was incredibly tough to put those dreams I had on hold and instead undergo radiotherapy, chemotherapy and surgery. At the same time, those dreams felt insignificant compared with my determination to get well again.
While I have been sick, my friends have gotten married and completed their degrees. It is a lonely road to have cancer, perhaps especially when you are young. Everyone has been incredibly supportive, but in the end I had to go through it all myself.
I have completed my treatment now. According to the tumour analysis, I am at low risk of relapse. This autumn I will be getting the keys to a flat, and I am opening a restaurant in Stockholm.
All of this makes me very happy. But I am still deeply affected by everything that has happened and very tired.”
Name: Benjamin Delfi
Age: 30
Occupation: Runs the summer restaurant Le Mur in Visby and is preparing to open a sister restaurant in Stockholm. Runs the TikTok account @pizzabenji.
