Everything is ready in Barcelona for the city to host the new edition of the gala in which Michelin Spain (already separated from the Portuguese edition of the red guide) announces the new distribution of stars, which for the second time will be held in the Catalan capital . Everything is ready in the Auditori Fòrum of the Barcelona International Convention Center (CCIB), including the forecasts that Michelin lets flow, providing some clues about where the trends are going.
It's going to be a great year, they have said from the guide, which suggests that there may be more than one new three-star. Until now, there are 13 restaurants from all over the country that are part of this exclusive club with the highest score: Arzak (San Sebastián), Martín Berasategui (Lasarte-Oria), Azurmendi (Bizkaia), Akelarre (San Sebastián), El Celler de Can Roca (Girona), Lasarte (Barcelona), ABaC (Barcelona), Cocina Hermanos Torres (Barcelona), DiverXO (Madrid), Aponiente (Cádiz), Cenador de Amós (Cantabria), Quique Dacosta (Alicante) and Atrio (Cáceres) The pools suggest that there could be two, or even three, establishments that would debut in the 2024 ranking in the highest category on the list and that would leave behind that 13 associated with bad luck. These would be distributed in different places in the Spanish geography, but the community that would take center stage would be Andalusia, which currently has a single three-star, Aponiente (Puerto de Santa María), by Ángel León, and which could now add others. two tri-stars.
Some of those trends that the guide points out is the prominence of small cities that until a few years ago were not on the usual circuit of haute cuisine (let's not forget that they sell tires and are interested in people traveling) and of very small restaurants. Most rumors point to the third star for Skina, in Marbella, a city that once had the triple star of Dani García and where this year the great lucky one would be the establishment of the waiter and sommelier Marcos Granda, who currently has with the young 27-year-old Toledo chef Mario Cachinero. It is a tiny restaurant whose promoter has other establishments spread across different parts of Spain.
The other protagonist, Córdoba, is the hometown of chef Paco Morales, who placed it on the map of haute cuisine with his until now two-star Noor, whose kitchen is directed by Paola Gualandi, which could become three stars. Andalusia would thus become a doubly awarded community. Morales is a chef with a long career, who began his career in Mugaritz, along with Andoni Luis Aduriz, moved to Madrid, Bocairent (València) and later settled in his city, where his parents run a takeaway kitchen store and where He chose to explore Andalusian cuisine, with the help of experts, to contribute his creativity and take it to maximum excellence.
Another clue that Michelin provides is that Madrid continues to be a reference place where everyone wants to be. Perhaps they are referring to the aforementioned Marcos Granda, from Skina, who could have his first star in his Madrid omakase-style restaurant, the Japanese TOKI, a type of cuisine that, according to what they indicate, this year the guide highlights as a trend, as does the fusion cuisine, like that practiced by Hugo Muñoz in his restaurant Ugo Chan, which could raise your score.
In Madrid, says Michelin, everyone wants to be there, which is why it always appears in the pools for the third star, which is currently only held by DiverXO by Dabiz Muñoz, who is preparing his move out of the capital. In the running are the Sandoval brothers' restaurant, Coque, a candidate for third, as are the restaurants of Diego Guerrero, Paco Roncero, Ramon Freixa and, more recently, Dani García. Furthermore, this year Quique Dacosta could opt. If it happens, the chef who imposed the ritual of organizing a selfie of all the tri-stars on stage, which has already become the final image of the gala and which places him in the foreground of the photo that symbolizes the event, could be a double protagonist. Deessa, who runs the Mandarin Oriental Ritz in Madrid, opened in 2021, obtained the first star in the 2022 guide, the second in the 2023 guide, and if it were the case that it achieved the third tomorrow, the decision would fit the trend that is beginning to be common in the red guide, both of meteoric rises that no one expects (fueling the surprise factor), and of commitment to chefs who fit very well with Michelin's philosophy and who manage to accumulate many stars.
The fact that Barcelona is the host city of the gala does not mean that it is one of the cities that receives the most stars. If we take the example of the first time that the guide chose the Catalan capital to present its news, it was one of the leanest years for Catalonia, whose only news was the loss of the third star of Can Fabes when he had just died. its creator, Santi Santamaría; the recovery of the second for ABaC and the granting of a single first star for Casamar de Llafranc, which lost it years later.
On this occasion, all the rumors point to the second star for Enigma, by Albert Adrià. The chef, who last year went on stage thanking with a sense of humor the commitment to “young talents”, would wear the jacket with the two stars, although the most optimistic advocate a direct jump to the three stars. Currently, the Catalan candidates for the third are Miramar (Llançà), Mejorar (Barcelona), Les Cols (Olot), Moments (Barcelona) and Enoteca Paco Pérez (Barcelona). Among all of them, the names that are most repeated in the bets these days are Enjoy, the Barcelona restaurant of chefs Eduard Xatruch, Oriol Castro and Mateu Casañas, and Miramar, by Paco Pérez in Llançà.
