Spain
Closes 2016 with Nine Three-Star Michelin Restaurants
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You can eat some fabulous food in Spain with Andalucía
having 6 Michelin Star restaurants
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There may be some truth to this – especially given the
creativity of Catalonian and Basque chefs and their restaurants over recent
years.
For the most part however it’s long past due for these
plaudits of Spanish cuisine. Spaniards have always had a lot of creativity when
it comes to food and even the lesser-known Spanish dishes are still cooked and
loved around the world.
This shouldn’t take away from the strikes that Spanishkitchens have been making recently to increase quality across the board. The
rewards are starting to pile up now as Spain will close out 2016 with nine
restaurants that have achieved the feat of being awarded three Michelin stars.
The latest restaurant to be bestowed this honour is the
Lasarte restaurant owned by Martin Berastegui. The restaurant also had the distinction
of being voted as the best restaurant in the world by TripAdvisor. This year
the restaurant celebrated their 10-year anniversary and their third Michelin
star.
This was also the first time that a Spanish restaurant was
crowned a three-star restaurant since 2014. The last restaurant before Lasarte
was the Madrid restaurant DiverXO.
Spain is also closing out the year with 23 restaurants with
2 stars, up from the 18 of last year. There are also 15 restaurants with just
one star in the country.
The nine restaurants that have all earned three Michelin
stars are: Akelarre and Arzak in San Sebastian, Zurmendi in Bizkaia, DiverXO in
Madrid, El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, Lasarte near San Sebastian, Martin
Berasategui in Gipuzkoa, Quique Dacosta in Alicante and Sant Pau in Barcelona.
While having nine such restaurants is certainly an admirable
feat Spain still has a long way to go if it wants to catch up to France and
their 26 three-star restaurants, and Japan with their 25. The UK by comparison
has just four of these three-star restaurants.
