Dabiz Muñoz, awarded in Amsterdam as the best chef of the year

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• Spaniard Dabiz Muñoz named best chef in the world

The Spanish chef Dabiz Muñoz, owner of DiverXo, a Madrid restaurant with three Michelin stars, has been awarded this Wednesday as the best chef of the year at the fifth edition of The Best Chef Awards 2021, held in person in Amsterdam, after its digital edition from last year. In a press conference after the awards ceremony, Muñoz stressed that the current moment "is hard due to the pandemic" for chefs around the world, and stressed that this type of awards "help restaurants, but also to the people of the country ”of the chefs who are on the list of the 100 best chefs of the year, among which there are 13 Spaniards. "The same in my case with Madrid, which seems to me to be one of the most exciting cities in the world today for gastronomy," said Muñoz,who believes that this award will also help the Spanish capital to “continue to grow”.

Last March, Muñoz reviewed in San Sebastián the accumulation of incidents that he has managed to overcome in a "disruptive" way since the coronavirus pandemic was declared and that have led him to "renew his votes" with his Madrid restaurant.

It could not do the same with its London store, StreetXo, which was forced to close permanently last December, five years after its opening.

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The chef Björn Frantzén, from Sweden, has been ranked as the second best chef in the list of the 100 selected, but he has also won the Voted by all chefs award, while the Basque chef Andoni Luis Aduriz, from the Mugaritz restaurant, occupies the third position in the same list. The Spanish Joan Roca has received the Science award and, when collecting it, he highlighted that his team "is strongly committed to science and sustainability". Roca has also insisted that these types of awards “benefit the country more than the chef” because the chefs represent “a structure, some products, some producers, and that ends up benefiting the territory more than the chef himself”, and recalled that the cooks end up reinforcing tourism and the work of local producers.

The Italian chef Alfonso Iaccarino has been distinguished as a Legend of gastronomy, and, during the collection of the award, he recalled his "almost 50 years of hard work" in which "he paid all his attention to the quality of the food" to make its Mediterranean dishes. The Young Emerging Star award went to chef Fatmata Binta, from Sierra Leone, for her Fulani Kitchen project, and explained that she takes advantage of "everything that grows around us" to prepare her dishes, so she dedicates all her time “to the ingredients and to maintain a relationship with the farmers of the region”. The award for Best Pizza went to Italian chef Franco Pepe, while the artistic award went to Vicky Lau, head chef at Hong Kong's Tate restaurant, which has two Michelin stars.