Andoni Luis Aduriz

Basque chef Andoni Luis Aduriz stood out as one of the most influential chefs of our times - as shown by the number of restaurants around the world (from Portugal to Brazil and Mexico) embracing Basque cuisine, many of them run by Aduri's alumni.

Throughout his career, he has prioritized both culinary evolution and an interdisciplinary approach, making several intersections with art and sciences in search of new questions for gastronomy.This has allowed him to cross the established borders, becoming a “rebel” in the kitchen. Aduriz is patron of the Basque Culinary Center and member in the Tufts Nutrition Council from Tufts University, a group of international leaders from diverse backgrounds focused on nutrition and health. He has also established unusual partnerships for his gastronomic creations such as La Fura dels Baus, the Spanish theater performance group, and alimentary research center AZTI, in addition to Imagineering Institute, the multi-disciplinary internet and digital media research & development center.

He was born in 1971 in the city of San Sebastián, where he began his culinary studies. Aduriz was an intern under Pedro Subijana (Akelarre), Juan Mari Arzak (Arzak), and Ramón Roteta (whose eponymous restaurant was in Gipuzkoa) before before working in elBulli, the restaurant of one of the world's most renowned chefs, Ferran Adrià. In 1998, he opened Mugaritz, in Errenteria, Basque Country, which has been recognized with 2 Michelin stars since 2006 and as one of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants. In a market where many restaurants do not exceed the first two years of life, Mugaritz managed to keep 12 of them among the Top 10 in the list of World's 50 Best Restaurants, created more than 1,500 disruptive dishes and remains as one of the most relevant restaurants in the food scene.

Mugaritz has innovated by recreating its defying and playful menu annually from scratch (the restaurant season goes from April to December) and keeping an elite R+D team to create disruptive dishes during the four months the restaurant remains closed for the public. In Mugaritz, Aduriz has managed to achieve a balance between avant-garde and traditional Basque cuisine, focusing on local ingredients from the mountains and the sea, such as hake, lamb, mushrooms, and cod kokotchas (cheeks), a local delicacy. His signature creative, challenging recipes range from edible potato stones, a pear in rotting process, and a Michelin Man made out of marshmallow.

As part of his idea of socialization of the kitchen Andoni Luis Aduriz has given classes at Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Basque Country, and Alain Ducasse training center in France as well as in the school The Culinary Institute of America in United States, among others.

Recently the chef also inaugurated a new restaurant concept in San Sebastian, Topa Sukaderia, a "contact cuisine" for Basque ingredients and Latin American recipes and cooking habits. As Spanish culture greatly influenced the cuisine of those countries that were colonized by Spain, he thought it would be interesting to consider the other way round: how Latin America had and could still influence Spanish food – or Basque, more specifically. It took him 20 years to finally decide to open a new venue other than Mugaritz. Now, Aduriz is secretly planning to open new places.