Santi Santamaria, who died on February 16 aged 53, was the first Catalan chef to earn three Michelin stars; as a champion of traditional cooking, however, he was perhaps best known for launching a very public attack on the "molecular gastronomy" movement led by his rival, El Bulli's Ferran Adria, whom he accused of "poisoning" diners with chemical emulsifiers.
Santi Santamaria (centre) at the opening of the Marina Bay Sands resort in Singapore in 2010 Photo: EPA
Santi Santamaria was born on July 26 1957 in a farmhouse at Sant Celoni, near Barcelona, where his father and grandfather had also been born. It was there, as an only child, that he watched his mother in the kitchen and helped his father tend the family smallholding, where they kept a few cows and chickens, grew vegetables and made wine.
The income from his father's job at a local textile factory was supplemented by home-grown products sold at market and by the mushrooms for which they foraged in the local woods.
Santamaria came to the professional kitchen relatively late in life, dreaming at first of becoming an artist and then taking up an apprenticeship as an industrial engineer. He never finished his exams, however, and at 24 chose to open a simple tavern at his home, where he worked alongside his wife, Angels, a girl from the neighbouring village whom he had met when he was just 14.
It was this kitchen, which in 1981 served cheap local dishes such as stewed beans and sausage, that was eventually to develop into a leading light of Catalan cuisine. Santamaria prided himself on being a self-taught man, and pored over books by leading French chefs, applying what he learnt to ingredients sourced from his beloved Catalonia.
In 1989 he earned his first Michelin star for El Raco de Can Fabes, adding another three years later. By 1994 his establishment had become the first in Catalonia to attain three stars, a standard it has maintained to this day.
He went on to open successful restaurants in Barcelona and Madrid, winning a total of seven Michelin stars, before branching out with establishments in Dubai and Singapore. Santamaria also wrote 10 books on cooking and was awarded Spain's National Gastronomy Prize in 2009.
But just as he was prospering by championing traditional cooking and local organic produce, a new avant-garde school, led by his fellow Catalan chef, Ferran Adria, was winning popularity in Spain. These two culinary styles could not have been more at odds.
Santamaria used a conference in Madrid in 2007 to launch an attack on Adria and his disciples, lashing out at the outlandish creations of their hi-tech cuisine, and accusing them of being "a gang of frauds... cooking for snobs".
El Bulli, which has often been described as the world's best restaurant, is famous for such innovations as hot and cold foams and "spherification" techniques, in which liquid droplets are sealed in gelatin to create edible, fluid-filled capsules. Santamaria derided such pretension, insisting that "all good meals should end in a good s---."
His tirade shocked both chefs and critics. A year later he went further when, at a launch of his book La Cocina al Desnudo (The Kitchen Laid Bare), he accused the molecular gastronomes of "poisoning" diners with their reliance on chemical emulsifiers in their culinary creations. In return he was branded a traditionalist consumed by petty jealousies over the success of others.
On news of Santamaria's sudden death, however, such insults were immediately replaced by an outpouring of tributes from Spain's most celebrated chefs, including Adria.
Santi Santamaria is thought to have had a heart attack while entertaining critics at Santi, the restaurant run by his daughter in Singapore. He is survived by his wife and their two children.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/8331757/Santi-Santamaria.html
But just as he was prospering by championing traditional cooking and local organic produce, a new avant-garde school, led by his fellow Catalan chef, Ferran Adria, was winning popularity in Spain. These two culinary styles could not have been more at odds.
Santamaria used a conference in Madrid in 2007 to launch an attack on Adria and his disciples, lashing out at the outlandish creations of their hi-tech cuisine, and accusing them of being "a gang of frauds... cooking for snobs".
El Bulli, which has often been described as the world's best restaurant, is famous for such innovations as hot and cold foams and "spherification" techniques, in which liquid droplets are sealed in gelatin to create edible, fluid-filled capsules. Santamaria derided such pretension, insisting that "all good meals should end in a good s---."
His tirade shocked both chefs and critics. A year later he went further when, at a launch of his book La Cocina al Desnudo (The Kitchen Laid Bare), he accused the molecular gastronomes of "poisoning" diners with their reliance on chemical emulsifiers in their culinary creations. In return he was branded a traditionalist consumed by petty jealousies over the success of others.
On news of Santamaria's sudden death, however, such insults were immediately replaced by an outpouring of tributes from Spain's most celebrated chefs, including Adria.
Santi Santamaria is thought to have had a heart attack while entertaining critics at Santi, the restaurant run by his daughter in Singapore. He is survived by his wife and their two children.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/8331757/Santi-Santamaria.html
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