The Michelin gala will be held in Barcelona next November

The Michelin guide has opted to celebrate this year's annual gala in the Catalan capital, Spain's most starred city, with 25 restaurants that have achieved this gastronomic distinction and three of them, Cocina Hermanos Torres, Lasarte and AbaC, reaching the maximum score. "Barcelona more than meets the criteria to host it, due to its personality and level of gastronomic offer," said the Sales and Marketing director of Michelin in Spain and Portugal, Miguel Pereda. In addition to the three three-starred restaurants, five Barcelona establishments have two stars and 16 have one star, six of them entering the ranking at the last gala, which took place in Toledo.

Pereda said this at the event that kicked off the gala that the city will host, which has only organized one previously, in 2011, the year El Bulli by Ferran Adrià closed and in which Can Fabes went from three stars to two after the death of Santi Santamaría. Barcelona's candidacy, as indicated by Pereda, has been consolidating in the last two years thanks to the work of Turisme de Barcelona and the Barcelona City Council, to which the assessment of Michelin inspectors has also contributed, who have confirmed "the high gastronomic progress of Barcelona in recent years."

"I am very happy that the Michelin Gala is held in Barcelona," said chef Paolo Casagrande "as a foreigner who has come to this great city, which I chose, but I think it has trapped me, it has given me everything and has made me dream." "There are great chefs in Barcelona who deserve to show the strength and creativity that exists in the city," continued Casagrande, accompanied by the Torres brothers. "It is something very important for the city. We really wanted Michelin to land here," said Javier Torres, "may it be the beginning of many more gastronomic events," completed his brother, Sergio Torres.

The gala of the famous red guide will be held on Tuesday, November 28, at the Barcelona International Convention Center (CCIB), with the expectation of hosting more than 700 guests who will taste the menu coordinated by the Torres brothers (Cocina Hermanos Torres), Paolo Casagrande (Lasarte) and Jordi Cruz (AbaC), in which the most highly rated dishes of the city by the Michelin Guide inspection team can be sampled. It will be the first time that only the stars achieved by Spanish restaurants will be presented, without the Portuguese ones, who will have a separate gala in early 2024 in a location yet to be confirmed.