Friday 18 February 2011

Santi Santamaría dies in Singapore aged 53

SPAIN (Agencies) One of Spain's best known cooks died suddenly last week while visiting his daughter's restaurant in Singapore. Called Santi after her father, Santi Santamaría, the restaurant is at the Marina Bay Sands complex. Santi's own five establishments carry the not insignificant number of seven Michelin stars among them, three of which go to his original restaurant at Can Fabes, opened in 1981. Santamaría, born on July 26, 1957, at Sant Celoni (Barcelona), had an interest in another four restaurants: Sant Celoni, in Madrid (two Michelin stars), the Evo in the hotel in the Hespera Tower (one star), the Tierra at the Hotel Gourmand in Valdepalacios (also one star), and the Ossiano, opened in 2008 in the Atlantis the Palm in Dubai.>
Santi Santamaría was more of the old school than his great rival and friend Ferrán Adriá, though a long way from being 'antiquated', according to the experts. He was admitted to the very prestigious Relais & Chateaux 'order' and became a member of the even more prestigious and exclusive Traditions & Qualité, Les Grandes Tables du Monde. He was also the author of several cook books, many of whic received prizes. He also wrote a column for La Vanguardia, and their Sunday Magazine.

His culinary differences with Adriá, owner of the famous El Bulli, also near Barcelona, was owed to Santi's belief that his friend "filled his pdishes with jellies and emulsions from the laboratory", a cuisine he deemed 'molecular'.
 

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