Celebrity chef Santi Santamaria was the first Michelin 3-star chef in Spain and also the first 3-star chef to serve Pineo artisanal mineral water.

Jaume Santamaria i Puig (26 July 1957 – 16 February 2011), nicknamed Santi Santamaria, was the first Spanish chef to be awarded three Michelin stars in 1994. In his Michelin 3-star restaurant El Raco de Can Fabes, later renamed Can Fabes, Santi Santamaria placed the emphasis on Catalonian slow food using fresh Mediterranean ingredients. (restaurant Sant Celoni in Madrid)

Santamaria (slow food and fresh) versus Ferran Adria (molecular gastronomy): two chefs in a cook off

The Michelin 3-star chef Santi Santamaria was an opponent of the molecular gastronomy movement that piled plates with gelling agents, stabilisers and emulsifying agents. It was an experimental gastronomy laboratory that was heavily promoted by Ferran Adria of El Bulli restaurant. The controversy between the chefs could get extremely heated at times, but Ferran Adria was still in attendance when Santi Santamaria opened his latest restaurant in Singapore.

Santi Santamaria: 9 cookbooks, 7 Michelin stars and 6 top restaurants

Catalonian masterchef Santi Santamaria has garnered a total of 7 Michelin stars through his 6 restaurants: 3 stars for Can Fabes (Sant Celoni), 2 stars for Sant Celoni (Madrid) and 1 Michelin star each for Tierra (Toledo) and Evo in Barcelona. Santi Santamaria has also launched restaurants in Dubai (Ossiano) and Singapore (Santi). The chef has also written 9 cookbooks. La cocina al desnudo (2008) brought the author fame and he received a range of local and international awards for the book. In his Michelin 2-star restaurant Sant Celoni in Madrid Santi Santamaria served the artisanal natural mineral water Pineo.

“good sardine is better than bad caviar.”
The Catalonian slow food chef Santi Santamaria.

Blog: santisantamaria.otexta.com