27 Apr Francis Paniego: Family, cuisine and values
Chef with three Michelin stars, Head chef and manager of the Hotel Echaurren Relais & Chateau
Francis Paniego
Family, cuisine and values
A long history precedes the chef Francis Paniego. He holds three Michelin stars, two of them as manager and head chef of the “El Portal Echaurren” restaurant, at the Hotel Echaurren Relais & Chateau, and the third as gastronomic advisor of the restaurant of the Marqués de Riscal hotel.
Francis Paniego belongs to the fifth generation dedicated to the family business, the Echaurren Group (Hotel Echaurren Relais & Chateau and the restaurants Echaurren Tradición, El Portal de Echaurren, El Cuartito, Tapas Bar and A Casa). Proud of family values, he claims to have received his first influences and his DNA as a cook down from the hand of his mother, Marisa Sánchez, an excellent and renowned traditional cook, who received in 1987 the National Gastronomy Award for Best Chef, awarded by the Royal Academy of Gastronomy.
Trained in the best restaurants in Spain, he has always maintained a close relationship with traditional cuisine and with the products of La Rioja, his homeland. It is this love of tradition that has guided his latest work, aimed at reinvigorating and updating the deepest tradition of the region. Paniego is gastronomic advisor to the Hotel Marqués de Riscal in Elciego (Álava) and, since this autumn, also to the Sport Hotel Hermitage in Andorra.
Since 2019 he has directed an innovative proposal: the ephemeral restaurant Ezcaray by Francis Paniego at the Hotel María Cristina in San Sebastián –city where he carried out part of his training with the chefs Pedro Subijana and Juan Mari Arzak–, open only from July to October.
In 2012, the Spanish Academy of Gastronomy awarded him the “National Gastronomy Award for the Best Chef in Spain 2011”, and he received the 2015 Chef de L’Avenir Award from the International Academy of Gastronomy.
Next Thursday, April 30th, Rogelio Pozo, PhD in Sciences, CEO of AZTI, expert in food technology and member of the board of directors of companies and foundations such as ELIKA, the Basque Food Safety Foundation will be with us. He will share with us his views on the contribution of science to technological and social progress in the construction of the day after.
