• Dabiz Muñoz Award is crowned 'best chef in the world' for the third consecutive year
  • Opening of San Leopoldo, the new market in Madrid that will revolutionise the gastronomic offer in the northern area of La Castellana

Madrid, thanks to Dabiz Muñoz, has been able to set a gastronomic record for a few days now: it has the Best Chef in the World on its tables, who is also repeating this long-awaited title for the third time in a row. Since the early hours of Monday morning, the owner of DiverXO has been topping The Best Chef Awards list, a ranking that focuses on chefs, rather than restaurants. It is the result of the votes of colleagues and sector experts, who choose a Top 100, announced at an annual gala that this year has traveled outside Europe to be held in the Mexican Mérida.

When the Polish neuroscientist Joanna Slusarczyk and the Italian gastronome Cristian Gadau launched the first edition of this list in 2017, they could not have imagined that some would begin to give it in a few years a similar or even greater attention than the already veteran The World's 50 Best Restaurants, which in just over two decades has demonstrated its power. with DiverXO as the third best restaurant in the world.

When the countdown of the 100 to 1 of the best chefs on the planet was read live at the Yucatán International Congress Center in Mérida – a city that at the same time brought together local chefs and chefs from all over the world at the Sabores de Yucatán festival – the bets on Muñoz as leader for the third year multiplied until confirming his award as number one in The Best Chef Awards.

In addition to DiverXO, what other Spanish tables have their chefs positioned in the world's Top 100? Up to 15 restaurants, with one more fact: five of the 10 best chefs in the world are from our country. We take a look at a selection of eight of them, including those in the Top 10 and the three from Madrid, to find out what you can eat and for how much on these haute cuisine tracks.

DiverXO Salon.

MADRID / Dabiz Muñoz (DiverXO)

With his crest and his groundbreaking spirit, he has marked a milestone: being awarded for three consecutive years as Best Chef in the World, something that had never happened in the young career of The Best Chef Award (until now, he tied with Joan Roca, from El Celler de Can Roca, who has been awarded twice). Dabiz Muñoz has his haute cuisine space in DiverXO, the only three-star restaurant in Madrid, where the tribute in the form of an extensive tasting menu costs 365 euros (without drinks). Dishes with infinite nuances that only he is able to combine and balance arrive at the table, with the possible pairing proposed as a tailor-made suit by sommelier Miguel Ángel Millán. As a great plan B, the concepts follow one another: the dumpling bar with a star like RavioXO; the StreetXO fusion bar-shaped restaurant; the home delivery service via GoXo and, since a few days ago, his recipes Pollos Muñoz, premiered in a food truckparked in the Christmas Market of El Corte Inglés in Castellana.

Enigma.PEPO SEGURA

BARCELONA / Albert Adrià (Enigma)

He admits that the pandemic was a hard, even emotional, blow, but he came out of it with an organizational and societal change, which required closing businesses, but, at the same time, relaunching Enigma. "It's the first time I've owned a restaurant one hundred percent and that gives me a lot of freedom," he said a few days ago, during his visit to Food Meets Science, an event about science and cooking that has been part of the organization of The Best Chef Awards. After a 27-month closure between March 2020 and June 2022 – during which some thought thehaute cuisine project of one of the world's most creative chefs was dead – Enigma reopened in June 2022, which explains why Albert Adrià did not have time to be present on the list of the best chefs in the world that year. A few days ago, he starred in a real milestone: debuting in the ranking directly in second place, winning the award for the best entry of the year. What is Enigma like? A space with an almost galactic look, where one of the few menus that can be considered truly avant-garde in the world right now is served. With a price of 220 euros (without drinks), within its tasting menu you can try an almost aerial mozzarella or its version of the marriage of squid and anchovy, dishes that enclose a complex work under an apparent simplicity. If you want to try something more casual from Albert Adrià, until March you can visit Taco Méndez, a pop-up taqueria in the premises that used to be Bodega 1900, in Barcelona's Paralelo, where he has teamed up with Paco Méndez, owner of Come (one star), to sell tacos for 5.50 euros. In London, she has the pastry café Cakes & Bubbles, where she sells her desserts on the ground floor of the Café Royal Hotel.

MugaritzJ.L. LÓPEZ DE ZUBIRÍA

BASQUE COUNTRY / Andoni Luis Aduriz (Mugaritz)

You have to wait until spring to try the groundbreaking menu with which he surprises his diners every year, even with an intention more focused on disorienting them than on offering them tasty or well-known flavors. Mugaritz is the mother house in Rentería (Guipúzcoa) of Andoni Luis Aduriz, who in 2023 does not change his fifth position on The Best Chef list. Abstain from diners who are not given to the most sui generis adventures at the table, but those who want to try the cuisine of a chef that Dabiz Muñoz considers one of his two undisputed references should note April as the month in which Mugaritz usually opens its annual season, which usually closes at the end of October. Its menu is priced at €253 (including VAT). Just in case, IXO Grupo, where Aduriz is a partner, has several projects in San Sebastián, from Bodegón Alejandro, a large restaurant serving traditional cuisine, or Muka, a grill format in the lower Kursaal, to the casual bar Topa Sukalderia, with Basque-Latin cuisine.


Enjoy.JOAN VARELA

BARCELONA / Oriol Castro, Eduard Xatruch and Mateu Casañas (Enjoy)

A sure value to try a cuisine that combines sophisticated techniques, seasonal products and revised Mediterranean recipes. Disfrutar, in Barcelona, is the haute cuisine headquarters of Oriol Castro, Eduard Xatruch and Mateu Casañas, who after working for years at elBulli decided to start their own businesses. In The Best Chef, Oriol Castro, Eduard Xatruch and Mateu Casañas have not moved from the seventh place they already occupied in 2022. From his version of macaroni carbonara or the now famous panchino stuffed with caviar and sour cream, hake and almond empedrat can appear in his two menus priced at 275 euros, while his restaurant is in second place in The World's 50 Best Restaurants. This trio of chefs and partners brings together more businesses under CXC, the brand of their hospitality group: the double headquarters of Compartir, a Mediterranean cuisine restaurant that was born in Cadaqués a decade ago and opened in Barcelona in 2022.

El Celler de Can Roca.

GERONA / Joan Roca (El Celler de Can Roca)

He is a partner with his brothers, Josep and Jordi Roca, of El Celler de Can Roca, the head of a family group that includes different businesses based mainly in Girona. Joan Roca is ranked eighth in The Best Chef, a list he has led twice. In its haute cuisine space with three Michelin stars, the offer is based on two tasting menus (with prices of 230 and 270 euros). The roots of Catalan cuisine are mixed with what they have learned in their travels around the world, while in many cases they rely on local products,including vegetables produced in the garden that the Roca family has on their Mas Marroch farm, on the outskirts of Girona. In fact, vegetable weight has been increasing in recent times with more dishes, always based on the seasonality of the product. Theimpressive winery led by Josep Roca and the creativity in the desserts of Jordi Roca, awarded this week as the best pastry chef in the world by the ranking of chefs, are fundamental complements. The Roca family has a collection of different businesses, such as the Normal bistro, the Casa Cacao hotel and chocolate factory and the Rocambolesc brand that adds ice cream parlor, confectionery and, since September, a bikini shop, which sells bikinis (mixed sandwiches).

Aponiente.

CÁDIZ / Ángel León (Aponiente)

The chef-owner of Aponiente has remained in 13th place on The Best Chef list. Its mother house in El Puerto de Santa María (Cádiz) occupies an impressive building that was a tidal mill, so the client can see the evolution of the high tide at low tide or vice versa during a meal. Its proposal is 100% marine, since this is the habitat in which Ángel León has been working for almost two decades: from the use of discarded fish or little-known species of fish to the introduction of marine plankton into gastronomy or continuous research to discover new products. Its menu is priced at 300 euros (without wines), but it should be noted that this week it closes its 2023 season and reopens shortly before Easter. There is usually a fish covered in crispy moray eel skin, which resembles the texture of suckling pig. His other businesses are a casual tavern in the old premises of Aponiente and Alevante, with a star in Meliá Sancti Petri.

DSTAgE.

MADRID / Diego Guerrero (DSTAgE)

DSTAgE is his two-starred haute cuisine space, opened a decade ago in the Salesas neighborhood, where he has built a mini-district with different businesses. Diego Guerrero, who has risen from 38th to 42nd place on The Best Chef list, owns the Dspeak bistro and the Dspot workshop, which also doubles as an event space. At DSTAgE you can choose from a couple of menus, which are priced at €175 and €200 (without drinks). "I'm in a city that doesn't set a style of cooking for DSTAgE, but rather is eclectic," the chef argued at the Food Meets Science event a few days ago. The Basque chef uses fermented foods and other techniques to create his menu.

Paco Roncero Restaurant.

MADRID / Paco Roncero (Paco Roncero Restaurant)

The haute cuisine space of this Madrid chef, ranked 60th (previously, 36th) on the international list, crowns the top floor of the Casino de Madrid, very close to the Puerta del Sol and in the heart of Canalejas. Its refined and tasty cuisine combines technique and seasonal products in an elegant space, where there are two key pieces of its team, among others: sommelier María José Huertas and head waiter Sara Fort. You can choose between two tasting menus, which cost €120 and €210.

More Spanish presence in 'The Best Chef Award'

-Javier and Sergio Torres, from Cocina Hermanos Torres (Barcelona), at number 20.

-Eneko Atxa, from Azurmendi (Larrabetzu, Vizcaya), at number 26.

-Quique Dacosta, from Quique Dacosta Restaurant (Denia, Alicante), at number 30.

-Paolo Casagrande, from Lasarte (Barcelona), at number 48.

-Bittor Arguinzoniz, from Etxebarri (Axpe, Vizcaya), at number 51.

-Paco Morales, from Noor (Cordoba), number 82.

-Fina Puigdevall & Martina Puigvert, from Les Cols (Olot, Girona), at number 91.