2023 Michelin Stars Spain and Portugal
Celebratory gala for the 2023 Michelin Guide showers stars on Spain
The 2023 Michelin Guide for Spain and Portugal will feature twenty-nine new restaurants with a Michelin star in Spain and five in Portugal. Spain will also have three new restaurants with two stars, and two more with three. The Guide has made a firm commitment to sustainability and distributed fourteen Green Stars between the two countries: thirteen in Spain and one in Portugal. And, for the first time ever in the Guide’s history, service was awarded with the introduction of the “Service Award”.
The event was attended by over 700 guests and held at the El Greco Conference Centre in Toledo; it was the last time the Guide will hold a joint event for the two Iberian countries because each will have its own gala from next year onwards, an announcement that was warmly applauded by the Portuguese guests.
The ceremony was hosted by television presenter Berta Collado, who was joined during different parts of the gala by celebrated chefs to announce the various awards. The event followed the usual order: speeches by the chair of the Guide for Spain and Portugal, speeches by sponsors, thanks to the sponsors, institutional speeches and a speech by Gwendal Poulennet, chair of all the Guides, who announced that separate galas would be held the following year.
Live music came from Albacete-born singer Rozalén, whose powerful voice was only joined by her accompanist playing beautiful music on the Spanish guitar – together they captivated the audience who momentarily forgot why it was there.
New developments at the 2023 Michelin Guide for Spain and Portugal gala
Next came the awards ceremony, which had a new feature this year: the French Guide wanted to award, for the first time ever, the work of dining room service teams as an inseparable and essential part of a comprehensive culinary experience. The very first Service Award was given to Toni Gerez, head waiter and sommelier at Castell de Perelada.
The two new accolades that had been introduced at the Guide’s previous event, the Mentor Award and Young Chef Award, were given to Joan Roca, who made an emotional promise to continue teaching, and Cristóbal Muñoz, chef at Ambivium (Peñafiel) who had double reason to celebrate because he was also awarded (spoiler alert!) a Michelin star.
2023 Michelin stars
This year, stars were awarded in geographical order, so each group of winners belonged to a specific geographical region of the Peninsula, unlike previous years when they were given in alphabetical order.
The first winners to be announced were from Portugal, and gala host Collado was joined on stage by Ricardo Costa, chef at The Yeat Man** (Funchal), who announced the names of the winners who will feature in the latest edition of the Guide. Five new restaurants were awarded a much sought-after star, three in Lisbon and two in Oporto.
The ceremony continued with Elena Arzak as co-presenter, and the stars that were awarded to the north of Spain. Arzak announced the names of five restaurants (two Galician, two Asturian and one Basque) that will be in the pages of the Red Guide in 2023.
Next, Jordi Cruz took over from Elena Arzak to announce the Michelin-star winners in the west of Spain, first telling the future Michelin-starred chefs that “tomorrow your lives will have changed in a way that you can’t even imagine.” One restaurant in Logroño, five in Barcelona (Cruz’s hometown), one in Ibiza, another in Mallorca and one in Zaragoza all received a star.
There was an amusing moment when the TV-star chef announced that the restaurant Enigma, by Albert Adriá, had won a star, saying it didn’t seem true that “a pot-burner, a prawn-peeler like me is asking this man to come up here to give him a star”. The youngest Adriá jokingly replied that he was happy that “the Guide is supporting young people like me because it’s time for a generational change”. The audience naturally broke out into noisy laughter.
Ángel León from Jerez, the chef of the sea, announced the names of the restaurants and chefs who had won stars in the south of Spain, which were widely distributed: six between Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Malaga, Loja (Granada), Murcia and a place “where a star hasn’t fallen since Phoenician times,” joked León, referring to the star won by the restaurant Código de Barra, in Cadiz.
Finally, double-star holders Iván Cerdeño and Iván Martínez, both from La Mancha, announced the nine restaurants that had won stars in the centre of Spain: three in Castilla La Mancha, two in Castilla y León and four in Madrid, one of which was by RavioXo, the new project by high-profile chef Dabiz Muñoz.
The Green Stars were announced next; these have been awarded since last year for green and sustainable culinary uses and practices. This section was co-presented by Jesús Sánchez (Cenador de Amós***) and Fina Puigdevall (Les Cols**), who gave this accolade to thirteen restaurants in Spain and one in Portugal.
As the ceremony drew to a close, all that remained was to discover whether or not there would be any new two- and three-star winners and who they would be. Chef Eneko Atxa, with his calm manner and deliberate voice, had been chosen to announce the three restaurants that had won a second star this year: Quique Dacosta at Deessa, at The Mandarin Oriental Ritz (Madrid), El Rincón de Juan Carlos, by Juan Carlos Padrón (Adeje, Tenerife) and Pepe Vieira and Xoxé Torres (Pontevedra).
When the host announced that the eleven restaurants with three Michelin stars in Spain would hold onto their stars and called the chefs onto the stage for a group photo, it seemed like the gala had reached its conclusion ¬– but the organisers had saved a last surprise for the end.
As the three-star holders posed for their photo, they were joined by two new restaurants who had become part of the international culinary elite: Los Hermanos Torres and Atrio. Winning a third star must have been a true joy for Atrio after the multimillion-euro robbery of its wine cellar earlier this year.
Chef Mentor 2023
Joan Roca, El Celler de Can Roca*** (Girona)
Young Chef
Cristóbal Muñoz, Ambivium* (Peñafiel-Valladolid)
Service Award
Toni Gerez, Castell de Perelada* (Girona)
New 1 Michelin Star Restaurants
Portugal
Lisboa
Encanto – José Avillez
Kabuki – Paulo Alves
Kanazawa – Paulo Morais
Oporto
Euskalduna – Vasco Coelho Santos
Le Monument – Julien Montbabut
Spain
Andalucía
Código de Barra – León Griffioen (Cádiz)
Kaleja – Dani Carnero (Málaga)
La Finca – Fernando Arjona (Loja, Granada)
Aragón
Gente Rara – Cristián Palacio (Zaragoza)
Asturias
Ferpel – Elio Fernández (Ortiguera)
Monte – Xume Andrade (San Feliz)
Baleares
Etxeko Ibiza – Martin Berasategui y Paco Budia (Ibiza)
Fusión 19 – Javier Hoebeeck (Muro, Mallorca)
Castilla La Mancha
Ababol – Juan Monteagudo (Albacete)
Ancestral – Víctor Infante (Illescas, Toledo)
OBA – Javier Sanz y Juan Sahuquillo (Casas Ibáñez, Albacete)
Castilla y León
Alquimia – Alvar Hinojal (Valladolid)
Cobo Evolución – Miguel Cobo (Burgos)
Cataluña
Aleia – Paulo Airaudo y Rafa de Bedoja (Barcelona)
Come by Paco Méndez (Barcelona)
Enigma – Albert Adriá (Barcelona)
Mont Bar – Fran Agudo (Barcelona)
Slow & Low – Nicolás de la Vega y Franco Beltri (Barcelona)
Galicia
Ceibe – Xoxé Magalhaes y Lidia del Olmo (Ourense)
O´Pazo – Óscar Vidal (Padrón, La Coruña
Islas Canarias
SAN-HÓ – Adrián Bosch y Eduardo Domínguez (Adeje, Tenerife)
Tabaiba – Abraham Ortega (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria)
La Rioja
Ajonegro – Mariana Sánchez y Gonzalo Baqueano (Logroño)
Madrid
Montia – Daniel Ochoa (San Lorenzo del Escorial)
RavioXo – Dabiz Muñoz (Madrid)
Ugo Chan – Hugo Muñoz (Madrid)
Zuara Sushi – David Arauz (Madrid)
País Vasco
Arrea – Edorta Lamo (Sta. Cruz de Campezo, Álava)
Región de Murcia
Almamater – Juan Guillamón (Murcia)
New 2 Michelin Star Restaurants
Canarias
El Rincón de Juan Carlos – Hermanos Padrón (Adeje, Tenerife)
Galicia
Restaurante Pepe Vieira – Xoxé Torres (Pontevedra)
Madrid
Deessa – Quique Dacosta y Guillermo Chávez (Madrid)
New 3 Michelin Star Restaurants
Cataluña
Cocina Hermanos Torres – Hermanos Torres (Barcelona)
Extremadura
Atrio – Toño Pérez (Cáceres)
New Green Star Restaurants in Spain
Ambivium – Peñafiel (Valladolid)
Arrea! – Santa Cruz de Campezo (Álava)
CanCook – Zaragoza
Casa Nova – San Martí Sarroca (Barcelona)
El Visco – Fuentespalda (Teruel)
La Casona del Judío – Santader
Les Moles – Girona
Mascarada – Lekunberri (Navarra)
Muxgo – Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Canarias)
Narbasu – Cerceda (La Coruña)
OBA – Casas Ibáñez (Albacete)
Venta Moncalvillo – Daroca de Rioja (La Rioja)
Zelai Txiki – San Sebastián
New Green Star Restaurants in Portugal
Mesa de Lemos – Passos de Silgueiros (Viseu)
