Michelin stars in Ibiza: 21 chefs cook for 100 charity diners
Chefs holding 28 stars between them shopped at the Mercat Nou for Estrellas contra el Cáncer, a €180 dinner whose 100 seats sold out. Last year's edition raised €29,510.
There were 28 Michelin stars in Ibiza town's Mercat Nou on Saturday morning: the 21 chefs who hold them toured the stalls to buy for a 100-seat charity dinner due that night, the local news site Noudiari reported on 3 October.
The dinner is Estrellas contra el Cáncer (Stars against Cancer), now in its fifth edition and set for 8.30pm at Nassau Beach Club. It is run by the businesswoman Nuria Moreno and Óscar Molina, chef of the one-star La Gaia. The ticket money goes in full to Aspanob, the association of families of children with cancer in the Balearic Islands, with sponsors covering the costs, according to Periódico de Ibiza.
The numbers are small and exact. A hundred tickets at €180 guarantee €18,000, and they sold out before the event. A raffle of 100,000 Iberia points and a €25 party from midnight were meant to add to that. Last year's edition, with 14 chefs and tickets at €150, ended with a cheque for €29,510, helped by two anonymous donations, Moreno told the paper.
Twenty-one chefs for a hundred diners is a ratio no restaurant could afford to run twice.
Who brought the 28 Michelin stars in Ibiza
The line-up, as published by both outlets: Molina, María del Dulce Jiménez Latorre, Álvar Hinojal, Luis Veira, Carlos Maldonado, Samuel Naveira, Víctor Martín, Sergio Manzano, Juan José Losada, Lydia del Olmo, Víctor Suárez, Álvaro Garrido, Raúl Resino, Marc Segarra, Luis Valls, Pablo González Conejero, Israel Ramos, Rafael Soler, Aarón Ortiz, Cristian Palacio and Jordi Grau. Neither outlet breaks the star count down chef by chef.
Several are returning. Last year's list included Maldonado (Raíces), Veira (Árbore da Veira), Martín (Trigo), Manzano (A'Barra), Ortiz (Kabo), Soler (Audrey's, in Calpe) and Resino, each then listed with one star. Hinojal sat a week ago on the jury of the Palencia patatas bravas contest won by Mauro Barreiro.
For a reader outside Spain the point is the ratio: fewer than five diners per chef. Moreno argued last year that the price is held below what a starred dinner normally costs so that island residents can attend. Molina said this year that the cooks set aside their own businesses to come.
A market run and a children's cancer charity
The market visit was arranged with the town hall's commerce and markets department. Councillor Alex Minchotti said the aim was to promote the Mercat Nou and show the chefs what local produce it sells; part of the dinner's ingredients were bought there that morning.
Aspanob's president, Jaume Coll, said last year that Ibiza and Formentera record six to eight new cases of childhood cancer a year, and that 13 families from the two islands were then living in Mallorca while their children were treated. The money helps with those costs.
No final tally had been published by Sunday. The floor is €18,000; the figure to beat is €29,510.
