SESSION 1 -  Fall 2023

21 September, 12pm EDT

Chef Eneko Atxa -Chef Owner Azurmendi - 3 Michelin Star

Eneko understands the gastronomy as a universal language, full of dialects which he uses to enhance the value of his territory, his culture and its roots through innovation, memory, and multidisciplinary cooperation of the people around him and those he encounters in his trips around the world. From this starting point was born his first project, Azurmendi, and the rest that have followed.

19 October, 12pm EDT 

Joxe Mari Aizega -General Manager Basque Culinary Center 

Discovering Joxe Mari Aizega, the General Manager Basque Culinary Center.

Basque Culinary Center is a unique ecosystem where training, innovation, research, and entrepreneurship coexist with the aim of developing and promoting gastronomy, the latter understood as reasoned knowledge about what we eat and how we eat. Located in Donostia - San Sebastian since 2011, it is a pioneering institution made up of the Faculty of Gastronomic Science and BCC Innovation, the Gastronomy Technological Centre.

21 November, 12pm EDT

Joxe Mari Aizega- Director of Galapagos Foundation Development Chef/Owner of MUYU. 

Time to meet Luciana Bianchi. 

Luciana is the director of the Galapagos Foundation focusing on gastronomy, conservation and sustainability. Her latest project is MUYU - the first farm, forest & sea to table restaurant in the Galapagos Islands, supporting organic farmers, and empowering women, and youngsters to become hospitality professionals.

14 December, 14pm EDT

Elena Arzak, a family. 4 generations of Arzak

The history of the Arzak Restaurant begins in 1897 when Juan Mari Arzak's grandparents built the house where his restaurant is still located today.

It was first a wine cellar and tavern. Later, Juan Mari Arzak's parents turned it into a restaurant of some importance and refinement. In 1966 Juan Mari Arzak took over the restaurant with his mother. She was his teacher in traditional Basque cuisine, to which he added his great curiosity and desire to innovate, which led him to create his own recipes. Traditional Basque dishes to which he added his own personal touch.

His great talent was soon noticed, and at the age of just 32, he was awarded the National Gastronomy Prize, and the Arzak Restaurant was awarded its first star by the prestigious Michelin guide in 1974.

From the mid 1970s onwards, he began to receive awards and recognition that made the Arzak Restaurant a benchmark in national and international gastronomy. In 1976 Juan Mari Arzak, together with a group of chefs, revolutionised cuisine and created a concept and a movement: New Basque Cuisine. In 1977 he was awarded the second Michelin star and in 1989 he was awarded the third star in the Michelin Guide. He was the second to receive the triple recognition in Spain and has held it ever since.

In the 1990s, Elena Arzak, Juan Mari Arzak's daughter, joined the family restaurant. Elena studied Hotel Management in Switzerland and then went on to work in the great kitchens of Europe, including Maison Troisgros, Pierre Gagnaire, Carré des Feuillants and Le Vivarois in France, Louis XV in Monte Carlo, Le Gavroche in London, Antica Osteria del Ponte in Italy and El Bulli in Spain.

In May 2001 he received the Chef de l'Avenir award from the International Academy of Gastronomy. In 2010, the Spanish Academy of Gastronomy awarded him the National Gastronomy Prize. And in 2012 she was crowned Veuve Clicquot World's Best Female Chef.

Today, Juan Mari Arzak shares with his daughter Elena his cooking, knowledge, passion and desire to continue making history at Arzak. History of the Arzak family.