Angel Zapata Martin joins Brindisa Tapas as chef director
Barcelona-born chef Angel Zapata Martin left Barrafina in 2023 with its Michelin star intact. He now takes charge of food across Brindisa's Spanish restaurants.
Angel Zapata Martin has joined Brindisa Tapas as chef director, years after he first met its founder while running the kitchen at Barrafina.
The Barcelona-born chef takes charge of food across Brindisa's restaurants, kitchens and sites. The Spanish food group created the role to tie its restaurants more closely to its own network of producers, rather than to replace a single predecessor.
Zapata Martin joined Barrafina as executive head chef in 2017 and rose to chef director of Barrafina and its sister restaurant Parrillan at Harts Group. Brindisa's own announcement credits him with seven years in that role; Harts Group's 2023 farewell notice put his tenure at six years and credited him with five restaurant openings across the group. Either way, he is best known for keeping the Michelin star at Barrafina's original Dean Street site.
Brindisa spent decades importing Spanish food. Now it wants someone in the kitchen who can cook it too.
He left Harts Group in 2023 to return to Spain and was most recently executive chef at Grupo Mambo in Ibiza. Before Barrafina, he worked as sous chef at Can Fabes, the late Santi Santamaria's three-Michelin-starred restaurant near Barcelona, and as head chef of Ossiano inside the Atlantis The Palm resort in Dubai.
A tapas group widens its menu
Brindisa founder Monika Linton met Zapata Martin in 2017, while he was still at Barrafina. Their kitchens kept trading ingredients afterwards: Zapata Martin says he sourced regularly from Brindisa's suppliers throughout his time at Harts Group.
“I have known Angel since 2017 and have watched his career develop,” Linton said. Zapata Martin called Brindisa “a brand I have admired,” adding that he wants to bring his experience in Spanish kitchens to its sites.
Linton founded Brindisa in 1988, after three years teaching in Catalonia and a spell as a chef de partie in Begur. The company built its name importing Spanish producers' cheese, charcuterie and oil long before it opened its own tapas restaurants, at a time when other kitchens have been trading Michelin stars for tapas menus.
A reshuffle beyond the kitchen
The appointment follows two other senior hires this year: Kelly Richardson as managing director and Adrian Castro as beverage director. It also lands in a busy month for London kitchen jobs - Josh Hughes left Hide and Fox for Updown Farmhouse days earlier. Together, the moves point to a group reorganising around its supply chain, not just its dining rooms.
Zapata Martin says he wants the kitchens to move past the expected tapas repertoire toward Spanish home cooking and regional, seasonal dishes - the kind of food his new employer has spent decades importing, rather than cooking, itself.
Whether that shift changes what diners actually order will become clear only once his menus reach Brindisa's tables.
