Martín Berasategui receives top honour at Gastronomika
The Basque chef marks 50 years in the kitchen as San Sebastián Gastronomika opens its 28th edition around the 50th anniversary of Nueva Cocina Vasca.
Martín Berasategui has received the Congress Tribute Award at San Sebastián Gastronomika, the industry congress that opened its 28th edition today in Donostia-San Sebastián.
The award marks Berasategui's 50 years as a chef. His group now holds 12 Michelin stars in total: three at his flagship restaurant in Lasarte-Oria, three at Lasarte Barcelona under chef Paolo Casagrande, three at the Martín Berasategui restaurant itself, run day to day by Joseba Lezama and David Beltrán, and two at MB Abama in Tenerife under Erlantz Gorostiza.
This year's congress, the 28th edition, runs under the slogan "La chispa que prendió el fuego" ("The spark that lit the fire"), tying its programme to the 50th anniversary of Nueva Cocina Vasca, the New Basque Cuisine movement that reshaped Spanish kitchens from the mid-1970s onward.
Fifty years of Nueva Cocina Vasca, measured out in twelve stars from one chef.
A pintxo built to twin two regions
Tenerife, the sponsor region of this year's edition, opened proceedings with a "hermanamiento" between the island and the Basque Country. Tenerife chef Alberto Margallo cooked a commemorative pintxo live alongside San Sebastián chefs Jesús Santamaría of Bokado and Patxi Bergara of Bergara, before a dedicated panel traced Berasategui's influence on Tenerife's own kitchens.
"San Sebastián Gastronomika is much more than a great gastronomic gathering: it's a space for exchange and international projection," said Dimple Melwani, Tenerife's tourism delegate, opening the Basque-Canary pairing.
Other prizes handed out this week
The congress also gave its Gueridón de Oro to wine critic Luis Gutiérrez of The Wine Advocate Spain, and its Pau Albornà i Torras gastronomic journalism award to writer Anya von Bremzen. Among the chefs on stage this week: Pierre Gagnaire, Michel Troisgros, Gastón Acurio, Juan Mari Arzak, Pedro Subijana, Karlos Arguiñano, Andoni Luis Aduriz and Hilario Arbelaitz.
The Martín Berasategui tribute closes out the opening day; the congress continues through 7 October with a first live goat-butchering demonstration, gofio and cheese workshops, and an inaugural International Cod Summit on 6 October. For a taste of the city hosting it all, see where to eat in San Sebastián, or try the Basque cheesecake recipe from La Viña.
