Mugaritz

Chef Andoni Luis Aduriz doesn't offer the headline-grabbing fireworks of most fashion-forward and playful modern Spanish cuisine, but is nevertheless setting the agenda for the next generation of chefs. A subtle, intellectual and harmonious cuisine - one that divides opinion - is delivered in a pastoral environment (a former cider bar) in the hills outside San Sebastian in the Basque country. Aduriz has worked with a roll-call of Spanish legends, including el Bulli, with Hilario Arbelaitz at Zuberoa, Arzak and Pedro Subijana at Akelarre. His pedigree is self-evident, though he is more frequently compared with Michel Bras than his fellow Spanish chefs.
Vegetable cookery is stellar as evinced by Vegetables, Oven-roasted and Raw, Sprouts and Greens, Wild and Cultivated, Seasoned with Browned Butter and Dusted with Seeds and Petals, Emmental Cheese

Chef Andoni Luis Aduriz doesn't offer the headline-grabbing fireworks of most fashion-forward and playful modern Spanish cuisine, but is nevertheless setting the agenda for the next generation of chefs. A subtle, intellectual and harmonious cuisine - one that divides opinion - is delivered in a pastoral environment (a former cider bar) in the hills outside San Sebastian in the Basque country. Aduriz has worked with a roll-call of Spanish legends, including el Bulli, with Hilario Arbelaitz at Zuberoa, Arzak and Pedro Subijana at Akelarre. His pedigree is self-evident, though he is more frequently compared with Michel Bras than his fellow Spanish chefs.
Vegetable cookery is stellar as evinced by Vegetables, Oven-roasted and Raw, Sprouts and Greens, Wild and Cultivated, Seasoned with Browned Butter and Dusted with Seeds and Petals, Emmental Cheese.
Foie Gras is another speciality - Aduriz worked with the University of Granada's liver transplant unit to better understand the DNA of duck livers. He is said to discard some 70 per cent of what he buys, serving only the finest lobes, cooked in a multi-stage process of searing, roasting, smoking and resting.
Adurix is routinely described as the future of Spanish cuisine, the one to pick up Adrià's baton - high praise, indeed, given that the one-time reluctant student had to retake a year at catering school.
Behind the stove:

Andoni Luis Aduriz
Always on the menu:

Ground Espresso Coffee on Chocolate Sauce, Light Chicory Cream and Natural Farmhouse Milk Skin
Random fact:

Aduriz' perfectionist streak is such that he studied chemistry of coagulation for two years to perfect egg cookery
Wine list:

€18.20 - €4,985 (£12.30 - £3,375)
Menu:

€85 (£58) for eight courses to €112 (£76) for 11

Mugaritz, Otzazulueta Baserria, Aldura Aldea 20 zk, Errenteria 20100, Gipuzkoa, Spain
+34 943 522 455
www.theworlds50best.com