Forget French fine dining or new Nordic cuisine, Spain has quietly become the foodiest country in Europe
As a delicious Barcelona spot secures the title of The World’s Best Restaurant, Marti Buckley examines why everyone’s fawning over Spanish cuisine right now
The number one restaurant in the world is in Barcelona, Spain. Of the top five restaurants this year, announced at The World’s 50 Best ceremony in Las Vegas this week, three are Spanish. Just stop and think about that – a relatively small country dominating alongside culinary powerhouses like France or Denmark and sheer giants like the United States. For much of the 20th century, French cuisine was the cuisine on the global fine dining stage. When the trailblazing Spanish restaurant El Bulli closed in 2011 after five number-one wins, new Nordic cuisine took its place as the dominant darling. But Spanish cuisine, it seems, is having its second act.
“Spanish cuisine has been having its moment for years,” says Ángel León, chef of Aponiente, Andalucía’s first-ever three-star restaurant – currently ranked at number 72 by The World’s 50 Best. “Spanish cuisine is all about product and roots – there is not just one style of Spanish cuisine. Spanish chefs aren’t new to the scene or positioning themselves according to passing trends. They are veterans.”
Elkano, Getaria
Disfrutar means enjoy, and that’s exactly what the chefs at the world’s new best restaurant want you to do. Specifically, they invite you to dive into their tasting menu of over 30 dishes in their conspicuously unstuffy – white tablecloths are shunned for clean, modern lines – dining room. This is where chefs Oriol Castro, Mateu Casañas and Eduard Xatruch flex their creative muscles, well-oiled since they met at El Bulli decades ago.
Quique Dacosta
The dishes you can expect at the world’s best restaurant? A panchino bun, made with a siphon so that it oozes Beluga caviar; a tartine of foie gras with bubbles of liquified, spherified corn – the parade of show-stopping dishes is a clear carrying of the torch lit by El Bulli at the turn of the century.
Elkano, Getaria
Other top contenders on this year’s list include: Asador Etxebarri, Axpe, at number two; DiverXo, Madrid, at number four; Quique Dacosta, in Dénia, at number 14; and Elkano, Getaria, ranking 28th. The Spanish restaurants in the top 50 represent different approaches to cuisine that define the food moment Spain is having.
“Spanish cuisine is a rural, traditional cuisine with high-quality ingredients,” says Pablo Vicari, chef de cuisine at Elkano. “Haute cuisine restaurants like Disfrutar have taken this kind of cuisine and apply all the creativity imaginable. These restaurants are on the list alongside traditional ones like Elkano and Etxebarri that are also very sophisticated in their own way.”
Asador Etxebarri
World domination is nothing new for Spanish chefs. Ferrán Adrià’s El Bulli won the top spot on the World’s 50 Best five times, a record that was tied with Noma and never beaten (and never will be, since winners now retire to a Best of the Best list). El Cellar de Can Roca, another Catalán restaurant, won the prestigious top spot twice.
The impact of El Bulli on both the Spanish and global food scene cannot be understated. This restaurant in Roses, Spain, altered the trajectory of global cuisine at the turn of the century, introducing groundbreaking methods like foams and spherification. It also led to the creation of iconic dishes, such as the renowned liquid olive, which inspired copycats that are still going strong two decades after its invention.
Asador Etxebarri
While it may seem that Spain quietly took over this year’s top five, the truth is the rise of Spanish cuisine is a perfect storm of sorts. Avant-garde Spanish cuisine began long before Adrià started making headlines at El Bulli. The nueva cocina vasca – new Basque cuisine – was started by a group of friends in San Sebastián in the 1970s. Chefs including Juan Mari Arzak, who won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2011 50 Best, and Pedro Subijana of Akelarre, pulled together under a new flag that combined Basque tradition and reverence for product with creativity and innovation. This put Spain on the global haute cuisine map, inspiring a generation of chefs, including Adrià, and the rising tide has carried chefs across the country to the top of world cuisine.
Quique Dacosta
Beyond the shiny kitchens of Spain’s starred spots, however, lies the real richness of Spanish cuisine – the incredible ingredients. Spain provides the world with olive oil, wines, cheeses, seafood, fruits and vegetables, but it makes sure to save the best for its own tables. Spain’s vast diversity also plays an instrumental role in its culinary dominance. Over 52 provinces, knowledge runs deep when it comes to cultivation and cooking of traditional ingredients – everything from the prawns of Cataluña to the baby tear-shaped peas of Basque Country to the red tuna of Andalucía to cave-aged blue cheeses of Asturias.
DiverXO
A record 84 million international tourists visited Spain in 2023, 28 per cent of whom came specifically to eat. This is in part thanks to the accessibility of the best of Spanish cuisine, which is a high-low, intensely joyful melange of experiences. Even Spain’s signature small bites, pintxos and tapas, often use techniques pioneered by top chefs, from foams to spherifications.
“The way of eating in Spain is a privilege,” says León. “We have both fine dining restaurants and affordable tapas, not to mention excellent mid-range restaurants – 20-40 euros per person – that you can’t find in other countries.” León is right – the Michelin guide recommends around 250 restaurants in Spain where you can eat for less than 40 euros. Local culture, whether you are on the beaches of Cadíz or the cliffs of Galicia, always goes hand in hand with food. From vibrant food markets to neighbourhood tapas bars, everyday eating in Spain is a celebration of product.
Spanish chefs have reached the peak once again, and with role models like Adrià, Arzak and more, there’s no shortage of inspiration. Spain’s top players are thrillingly diverse – on one hand, restaurants like DiverXO and Disfrutar focus on fusing culinary art and science, while restaurants like Etxebarri, Elkano, and Quique Dacosta are temples to high-quality ingredients. The future of Spanish cuisine will depend on not only wild innovation but also sustainability of the high-quality ingredients and the close link to tradition – but for now, Spain just may be the foodiest country in Europe.
