International Council
The Basque Culinary Center's International Board is comprised of some of the world's most important and influential chefs. Its work consists of guiding the Basque Culinary Center's strategic efforts and providing the institution with a modern outlook, connecting the sector's global realities and catalysing them in this unique and far-reaching project. The Basque Culinary Center International Board's commitment and advisory work provides an international perspective, with experience as its cornerstone.
MEMBERS
Presided over by Joan Roca, active Board members include Gastón Acurio, Massimo Bottura, Enrique Olvera, Trine Hahnemann, Dominique Crenn, and Yoshihiro Narisawa, with the Board's founding members including Ferran Adrià, Michel Bras, René Redzepi, Heston Blumenthal, Alex Atala, and Dan Barber.
Ferran Adriá
FOUNDER MEMBER
Ferran Adriá
FOUNDER MEMBER
Ferran Adrià changed culinary history forever when, through creativity and innovation, he reimagined the way that diners interact with the table. The name Adrià is synonymous with El Bulli, his iconic restaurant in Catalonia that broke the mould with the concept of 'deconstruction'. While preserving the essence of a dish, Adrià transformed ingredients, textures, shapes, temperatures, and aesthetics. He invented dozens of culinary techniques (spherification, culinary foam, etc.), equipment, and ways of experiencing gastronomy. Ferran Adrià's prestige led to his being the first chef to present his work at documenta (Kassel, Germany), one of the contemporary art world's most influential exhibitions. Adrià's latest endeavour is elBullifoundation, an expansive project that explores the notion of creativity and knowledge.
Michel Bras
FOUNDER MEMBER
Michel Bras
FOUNDER MEMBER
Michel Bras is passionate about territory as a creative concept. An advocate for sustainability and biodiversity, Bras rejects the hierarchy of the kitchen: he prefers to see members of his team as 'creative collaborators'. He learned to cook at his parents restaurant Lou Mazuc, then became self-taught in photography and culinary philosophy. When Michel Bras was still a young cook, he had the audacity to dream of creating a restaurant "in the middle of nature", his great love and inspiration. In 1992, his dream came true with the opening of Bras, a hotel restaurant located amidst the wild natural setting of Aubrac (France). Three Michelin stars later, Michel Bras continues to be as devoted to the magic of his land and the plant world as ever, faithful to the charm of what is natural and authentic.
René Redzepi
FOUNDER MEMBER
René Redzepi
FOUNDER MEMBER
Responsible for the new Nordic cuisine revolution, René Redzepi was able to bring notes of the Scandinavian wilderness into the spotlight with a modern offering. He put his country on the culinary map, bringing back forgotten ingredients with innovative spotlights, showing the importance of these products ability to express "a here and a now". Redzepi is the chef at Noma, a two-Michelin-star restaurant in Copenhagen that was chosen as the world's best restaurant in 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2014 by The World's 50 Best Restaurants. Although René Redzepi trained at many of the very best restaurants of the time (El Bulli, Kong Hans Kælder, The French Laundry, among others), his inspiration comes from childhood memories he holds of Macedonia, where he learned the value of local, seasonal products.
Heston Blumenthal
FOUNDER MEMBER
Heston Blumenthal
FOUNDER MEMBER
A pioneer of introducing scientific knowledge into the kitchen, Heston Blumenthal has explored the multi-sensory landscape as few have at his restaurant The Fat Duck. This inveterate English researcher has explored how taste and flavour are affected by factors such as expectation, memory, images, and sounds. Blumenthal is responsible in part for the exchange between gastronomy and philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, and anthropology, among other disciplines. He actively supports British agriculture, and is a staunch defender of social causes such as the fight against drug and alcohol abuse. Heston Blumenthal has received honorary degrees from three universities, and is a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Alex Atala
FOUNDER MEMBER
Alex Atala
FOUNDER MEMBER
Alex Atala was the first chef to ever appear on Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Since the opening of D.O.M., his two-Michelin-star restaurant in São Paulo, Atala shot to fame by rescuing products native to the Amazon and inviting us to rethink his country's culinary identity. Outside the kitchen, Alex Atala drives projects such as Atá, an institute that seeks to open the market to endemic products in support of local communities.
Dan Barber
FOUNDER MEMBER
Dan Barber
FOUNDER MEMBER
Chef and writer Dan Barber is the co-owner of Blue Hill in Manhattan and Blue Hill in Stone Barns. Located 45 minutes from New York City, the latter of these two restaurants is part of an agricultural production centre where the chef connects diners with the earth from which these exceptional ingredients are extracted. He is a defender of the environmental cause, and pushes to ensure the kitchen is as responsible as it is sustainable. Dan Barber holds conferences on food and agriculture, is on the Advisory Board at Harvard University's School of Medicine, and was appointed to President Barack Obama’s Council on Physical Fitness, Sports and Nutrition. Barber's philosophy revolves around being conscious of what we eat, how we produce it, and the impact all of this has on nature.
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Joan Roca
ACTIVE MEMBER
Joan Roca
ACTIVE MEMBER
Chef at Girona's El Celler de Can Roca, which holds 3 Michelin stars and was deemed the world's best restraint according to The World's 50 Best Restaurants (2015). Here, Joan works alongside his two brothers: Josep and Jordi Roca. As a Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) to advance sustainable development, he is receptive to local products, research and, above all, innovation as a premise. In 2013, Joan Roca debuted El Somni, a multi-sensory production that explores the interaction between food, music, and art. He is also a pioneer of 'gastrobotany' projects, aspiring to reintroduce wild species into her country's culture and diet.
Gastón Acurio
ACTIVE MEMBER
Gastón Acurio
ACTIVE MEMBER
Gastón Acurio is a driving force behind the Peruvian culinary revolution. He has more than 40 restaurants round the world, including his emblematic Astrid & Gastón. Acurio insists on the kitchen being a tool for social development. He is recognised for his philanthropic work, including the cooking school he founded in the Lima suburb of Pachacútec, and his passionate defence of cultural, social, and environmental causes. In 2011, for example, Gastón Acurio launched a successful campaign in Peru against genetically modified crops, which resulted in their being banned for a decade.
Massimo Bottura
ACTIVE MEMBER
Massimo Bottura
ACTIVE MEMBER
With great passion and a transgressive philosophy, Massimo Botura takes on culture as the true power that a chef must wield in order to make a difference. At Osteria Francescana, his three-Michelin-star restaurant in Modena, he plays with musical and contemporary art references to create beauty and pleasure, but also to spread his discourse questioning Italian tradition through a critical and unsentimental lens. Using the exquisite seasonal foods of his region, Bottura has conceived some imaginative and innovative dishes like Oops, I Dropped the Lemon Tart, or Pollution (a protest against nuclear pollution). Massimo Botura is also a promoter of social and environmental campaigns. At Expo Milan 2015, he set up his Refettorio Ambrosiano, where those in need received meals made from the exhibition's leftovers—drawing attention to the millions of tonnes of food waste each year.
Enrique Olvera
ACTIVE MEMBER
Enrique Olvera
ACTIVE MEMBER
Enrique Olvera is Mexico's most celebrated chef thanks to his extraordinary talent and charisma. His restaurant Pujol caught the world's attention by transforming deep-rooted Mexican culinary tradition with a contemporary, sensitive, and authentic focus. At present, Olvera has seven restaurants—including Cosme in New York—, all of which promoting his passion for local products. As an advocate of the simple things, he shies away from pretension and excess. Culture and ecology are part of his narrative: from the cutting-edge complimented with prehispanic methods using nearly extinct native species, to his commitment to sustainable, high-quality products. Olvera has also fought against genetically modified crops, and participates in educational programmes to improve the diets of children in Mexico—a country with one of the world's highest rates of obesity.
Trine Hahnemann
ACTIVE MEMBER
Trine Hahnemann
ACTIVE MEMBER

Trine Hahnemann is a Danish chef and culinary writer. She is the owner and executive director of Hahnemanns Køkken, a company through which Hahnemann and her team provide some 3,000 meals daily to public and private companies in the Copenhagen area that are made entirely from organic products following a motto of sustainability. Hahnemann is also an activist that has spent many years promoting ways of experiencing gastronomy through diversity and social justice, both influenced by her work in the kitchen, as well as her written word.
Trine Hahnemann has written 10 books on gastronomy in Danish, and 7 in English, including Copenhagen Food (2018), The Nordic Diet (2009), and The Scandinavian Cookbook (2008). Her articles are regularly published in the United States and the United Kingdom in magazines and newspapers such as The Guardian and Time Magazine, and she has been invited on programmes on the BBC.
Chef Hahnemann has been involved with many social causes in her country, such as the social inclusion of Syrian refugees by helping young cooks fleeing from the war establish themselves professionally. As a result of these efforts, Hahnemann co-authored a book on Syrian culinary culture.
Dominique Crenn
ACTIVE MEMBER
Dominique Crenn
ACTIVE MEMBER
At her three-Michelin-star restaurant Atelier Crenn, Dominique Crenn transforms memories into food that is poetic, modernist, and imaginative. She lectures at Harvard University, and attends numerous conferences around the world. Crenn was also the winner of the 2015 Augie Leadership Award from the Culinary Institute of America. Dominique Crenn's current vision is to create gastronomy that stands out as a result of its modernity and seasonal, high-quality artisanal work. Her culinary style and enigmatic personality are leaving their mark on the San Francisco restaurant scene, garnering a solid, well-deserved national and international reputation for seasonal cooking that is both modern and artisanal.
Yoshihiro Narisawa
ACTIVE MEMBER
Yoshihiro Narisawa
ACTIVE MEMBER

Yoshihiro Narisawa is the chef and owner of Narisawa, a two-Michelin-star restaurant in Tokyo, Japan. During his apprenticeship, Narisawa travelled to Europe to learn from renowned chefs like Joel Robuchon and Paul Bocuse. Upon his return to Japan in 1996, Yoshihiro Narisawa opened his first restaurant, which combined classic French cooking techniques with a poetic use of Japanese ingredients. Considered a pioneer of gastronomy that is connected to environmental preservation, and as such a pioneer of respecting the medium, Yoshihiro Narisawa captured the attention of chefs at Madrid Fusión 2010 to earn the title of 'Most Influential Chef'. Narisawa is also the creator of a food culture based on the richness of Japan's natural environment: the satoyama. There, human and nature coexist, and two key ideas emerge that the chef defends: environmental sustainability and beneficial gastronomy (focused on eating healthy and beneficial foods). This has led to a culinary experience that consists of placing guests "under the spell of the season".
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OUR MISSION
In this sense, our International Board is the body responsible for guiding the strategic work of the Basque Culinary Center: guiding our efforts, helping us identify opportunities, and opening scenarios for both discussion and action that contribute to the advancement of gastronomy.
Aware of how fortunate we are to count on the involvement of such talented personalities as our allies, and of the responsibility that our profession demands and expects from us, we seek to consolidate ties that translate into mutual and multiplying alliances.
CONTENT
The International Board's foundation is its annual meeting, where renowned chefs and experts from various disciplines come together in a different city to identify challenges, stir debate, and explore ways of pushing our profession forward.
For their part, the members of this board will support projects of various types: fostering contexts of exchange and reciprocal collaboration, content production, student apprenticeships (both at our headquarters in San Sebastian, as well as in restaurants around the world), and supporting each of these chefs efforts to accelerate societal impact through gastronomy.
MEETINGS
This international network of chefs is committed to the realities facing the sector and society at large, meeting annually in a forum to share knowledge and debate topics as diverse as Sustainability, Biodiversity, Transformation through Gastronomy, and Seeds.