Martín Berasategui

Biography

Martín Berasategui got his start at 14, working in his family’s restaurant, Bodegón Alejandro. Back then, the Basque Country had no Michelin-starred restaurants. At 17, he was sent to France to train as a pastry chef. By 20, he had taken over his parents’ place, and at 25, he earned his first Michelin star there. In 1993, he opened his own restaurant, Martín Berasategui, in Lasarte-Oria, near San Sebastián. It gained a third Michelin star in 2001. The restaurant was named the 29th best in the world by Restaurant magazine in both 2008 and 2011, its highest ranking on that list.

As of 2013, Berasategui held more Michelin stars than any other Spanish chef. Beyond his three at his flagship, he has three at Lasarte in Barcelona, two at M.B in Tenerife, two at Fifty Seconds in Lisbon, Portugal, and one at Ola Martín Berasategui in Bilbao. M.B, inside the Ritz-Carlton Abama resort, got its first star in the 2010 guide and its second in 2014. Fifty Seconds, his only starred restaurant outside Spain, opened atop Lisbon’s Vasco de Gama Tower in 2018; it earned its first star in 2019 and its second in 2026. Ola Martín Berasategui also received its first star in 2019. Two other restaurants, Oria (a sister to Lasarte in Barcelona’s Monument Hotel) and Etzeko in Ibiza, each earned one star but have since closed. Berasategui also owns several other restaurants worldwide, including two in the Dominican Republic, one in Mexico, one in Costa Rica, and one in Dubai.

In 2013, François Rabelais University announced it would award Berasategui an honorary doctorate in culinary studies. It was the first time the university gave honorary doctorates to chefs, with Mikuni Kiyomi, Philippe Rochat, and Pierre Wynants also receiving the honor.