Elite Gathering of Spanish Chefs to Celebrate Life of Santi Santamaria - by Marcus

Just back from a truly extraordinary trip to Spain. I received an invite to a unique gathering of Spanish chefs - the cream of Spanish cuisine.

• Eighty five Michelin stars in one place.

• Eleven out of the sixteen ✨️ three Michelin star chefs 🌟 🌟 🌟 in Spain.

This was a lunch to celebrate the life of chef "Santi Santamaria", 15 years after his death. Classic Santi dishes recreated by the titans of Spanish cuisine.

Credit: Joan Pujol Creus

I flew to Barcelona and waited in the airport for more guests to arrive to share a taxi. One by one my fellow passengers arrived: Paco Morales, Jesus Sanchez, Eneko Atxa, Fancis Paniego and Adrian Zarzo. That's 12 Michelin stars 🌟 and a greengrocer from London.......I know it sounds like the beginning of a joke!

think I was the only English person there. There was such huge talent and everyone was there to celebrate this chef’s life.

[For a bit of background, Santiago Santamaria was a legendary Catalan chef who died in 2011. His first restaurant Can Fabes received three Michelin stars and he went on to open other restaurants around the world.]

The canapés were outrageous. A lot of the food was extraordinary quality shown in a simple but beautiful way.

Some of the canapés really showed off the teardrop peas – they were absolutely delicious.

The veal shanks was out of this world. The one thing I wasn’t sure about the cod tripe – I thought it was pasta at first.

It was a day to remember. They said an event like this had never happened in Spain before. The chefs felt they had to be there. Some had flown across the world just for lunch and were back on a plane that evening.