The Spaniard Dabiz Muñoz has fulfilled the predictions and has managed to proclaim himself 'best chef in the world' for the third consecutive year within the gala The Best Chef Awards that has been held in the city of Mérida, capital of the Mexican state of Yucatan, his first venue outside Europe.
In addition, four Spaniards were placed in the top 10 of the list, including Albert Adrià, from Enigma (Barcelona), who finished second.
"Thank you to legends of Spanish cuisine for teaching me," Muñoz said after receiving the award. In front of more than 200 chefs from Japan, China, Korea, the United States and dozens of Latin American countries, Muñoz praised Spanish cuisine, "without a doubt I have grown up in one of the most incredible countries in world gastronomy."
The award was received from the hands of two traditional Mayan cooks and the creative director of the contest, Cristian Gadau, who said that "Mayan culture is rich in gastronomic traditions."
"We organized the event for the first time in this region of Mexico because of the ancestral cuisine," he told EFE before the ceremony organized at the International Congress Center in Merida.
In the VII edition of The Best Chef Awards, the new candidates from different countries were also announced, mainly from Mexico, Spain and Latin America. In addition, the identities of the one hundred new candidates for the Top 100 2023 list were revealed.
The selection of new candidates was made by a group of 150 experts, including journalists specialized in gastronomy, critics, connoisseurs and photographers accustomed to traveling the world guided by its different aromas and flavors.
The list of award winners includes Joan Roca (El Celler de Can Roca, the best in 2017 and 2018), Björn Frantzén (Frantzén, 2019), René Redzepi (Noma, 2020) and Muñoz (DiverXO, 2021, 2022 and 2023).