Elena Arzak
Spanish chef
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Elena Arzak (born 4 July 1969) is a Basque chef. She is joint head chef of three Michelin starred restaurant Arzak alongside her father, Juan Mari Arzak, and was named best Female Chef in the World in 2012.
4 July 1969
Elena Arzak | |
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| Born | Elena Arzak Espina 4 July 1969 San Sebastián, Basque Country, Spain |
| Culinary career | |
| Cooking style | New Basque cuisine |
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Current restaurant | |
Awards won
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Biography
She first started working at her family's restaurant, Arzak, at the age of 11, becoming the fourth generation of her family to work there.[1] She would work two hours a day during the summer holidays from school. At the time her grandmother was the head chef.[2] Her father is Juan Mari Arzak, who initially worked under his mother at the restaurant, but went on to become head chef himself.[3]
Her father sent her abroad to train at other restaurants after she attended hotel school in Lucerne in Switzerland.[4] She worked at Le Gavroche in London for six months in 1989 under Albert Roux, and alongside Michel Roux Jr. who was also training at the time.[5][6] She also trained at La Maison Troisgros, Le Louis XV under Alain Ducasse, Restaurant Pierre Gagnaire and returned to Spain when she worked at elBulli.[7]
She became joint head chef of her family's restaurant alongside her father.[5] In 2011, she appeared at The Restaurant Show in London, England. As well as conducting a cooking demonstration, she officially opened the show alongside Rachel Quigley.[8] She has ruled out opening a second restaurant for the time being, but said "I won't say never".[6]
In June 2020, she and other chefs, as well as architects, Nobel laureates in Economics and leaders of international organizations, signed the appeal in favour of the purple economy (“Towards a cultural renaissance of the economy”), published in Corriere della Sera,[9] El País[10] and Le Monde.[11]
Awards
In 2011, she was nominated for Restaurant's Veuve Clicquot award for World's Best Female Chef, but it was awarded to Anne-Sophie Pic.[12][13] However, Arzak went on to win the award in 2012.[14]
