

At Chic Icon, we introduce you to the most outstanding chefs in the world. With their achievements, they have managed to attract the attention of the most exquisite palates around the world. Their fame is recognized through numerous awards, publications, and select cooking schools in which they train new promises of gastronomy and learn their revolutionary techniques and particular philosophies about gastronomy. Undoubtedly, these chefs represent la creme de la creme of the world’s gastronomy!
Alain Ducasse


French chef Alain Ducasse is the only one in the world to own a remarkable 14 Michelin stars, thanks to his 20 restaurants in different parts of the world that have become a global benchmark. Alain Ducasse was born in 1956 in southwestern France. He started working at the age of 16, gaining his knowledge of Provençal and Mediterranean cuisine and looking to Alain Chapel as his spiritual master. His gastronomic style is characterized by cooking food at very low temperatures and therefore employing long cooking times, he also uses vacuum bags (sous vide) to cook some of the food and uses advanced cooking methods.


His rigorous working methods and how he seems to manage his staff make him a chef from whom there is much to learn. He has written a variety of books and also trains people, spreading his knowledge to new generations. L’École de Cuisine Alain Ducasse is located at 64 rue du Ranelagh in Paris, it offers 700 m2 in a warmer atmosphere than you can usually find in an haute cuisine school, the purpose is that students feel comfortable, like at home, in any of the four kitchens that the new school has.


One of his most outstanding restaurants is in a luxury hotel in Paris, the restaurant Alain Ducasse au Plaza Athénée. Its very elegant decoration is only a small part of the great experience of this restaurant, its menu is based on vegetables, fish, and cereals selected most exquisitely, making its dishes manage to surprise and excite.
Yoshihiro Murata


Yoshihiro Murata is the third generation of a saga of cooks from Kyoto and the eldest of 4 brothers. Since his childhood, he has already shown an interest in the world of cooking by preparing food for his 3 younger brothers. Currently the owner of three restaurants that together have 7 Michelin stars, he is considered a gastronomic master, both inside and outside Japan. One of his current priorities is to take traditional Japanese recipes and cuisine beyond Japan’s borders and prevent “washoku” (traditional Japanese food) from disappearing.


The Japanese chef has great discipline and perfectionism in his work. In his cuisine, local and seasonal fruits and vegetables stand out. Such is his passion for local gastronomy that he takes water from the well of his Kyoto restaurant to Tokyo, where he has another restaurant. His hard work has yielded impressive results and washoku has finally been recognized as a cultural heritage by UNESCO.


Yoshihiro is a great admirer and advocate of what we could call the “fifth taste”, umami, which is the basis of Japanese cuisine, without which Japanese dishes would only taste like water. Umami is considered the fifth basic flavor that, like salty, sweet, sour, and acid, can be combined to create a symbiosis of different flavors.
Jordi Cruz


Jordi Cruz Mas is a Spanish chef born in Barcelona in 1978. At the age of 14, he began working at the Estany Clar restaurant in Cercs (Barcelona), where he received his first Michelin star in November 2002, becoming at the age of 24 the second chef in the world to receive this distinction. From that moment, he became a firm promise within the Spanish culinary scene.


He first took charge of Estany Clar (Cercs), where he got a Michelin star at the age of 26. Then he moved on to L’Angle (1 Michelin star) in Manresa, next to the headquarters of the Alicia Foundation, the place he still runs; for the last two years, he has been in charge of the kitchen at the elegant Abac (2 Michelin stars) in Barcelona. His latest venture is called 10’s: a gastro bar with tapas that fuses tradition and the avant-garde.


Cruz takes care of the product, pampers it, applies the culinary method that suits him best, but does not give up experimenting with new techniques. For him, tradition and creativity are not opposing concepts. He is interested in following the natural evolution of cuisine. Perfectionist and meticulous, he displays an enormous technical skill that allows him to take on challenges that for others would be risky. His dishes are always eye-catching, harmonious, and very pleasing to the palate, which is what matters in the end. He has published several cookbooks, but what has given him a lot of fame is being part of the jury of Master Chef Spain since 2013, which has made him a celebrity in Spain.
Pierre Gagnaire


Chef Pierre Gagnaire, born in Apinac, France in 1950, is a renowned French haute cuisine chef, owner of the Pierre Gagnaire restaurant on rue Balzac in the 8th arrondissement of Paris (3 Michelin stars) and a dozen eponymous restaurants around the world. Gagnaire is sometimes considered an iconoclast chef who has been at the forefront of the fusion movement in cuisine, and his cuisine is generally described as creative and unpredictable. He began his career at St. Etienne, where he achieved 3 Michelin stars, and managed to overturn the conception of traditional French cuisine by juxtaposing flavors, textures, and ingredients.


Gagnaire was one of the first chefs to conceive of food as art, and like a painter, he often marks his culinary pieces by dish and year. The constant evolution and unpredictability of his cuisine have allowed this chef, considered among the top 10 chefs in the world by Le Chef magazine, to remain at the forefront of the international culinary scene, and together with chemist Hervé This, he has developed molecular gastronomy.


With Hervé This he has published a couple of books, in addition to three books written alone.
Martin Berasategui


Martín Berasategui was born in 1960 in San Sebastián, Spain. His training as a chef and a large part of his life is related to Bodegón Alejandro, a popular restaurant run by his parents and his aunt, located in the old part of San Sebastián, where he obtained his first Michelin Star.


Between the ages of 15 and 27, Martín visited France on his days off to train and acquire knowledge. In Bayonne he learns with Jean Paul Heinard and in Anglet with André Mandion. In charcuterie, he delves into the hand of François Brouchican in the village of Ustariz and the kitchen with Bernard Lacarrau in the village of Labatut. But, above all, it was with Didier Oudil, a portentous professional, first head chef at the glamorous seaside resort of Les Prés D’Eugénie with Michel Guerard, that he came into contact with haute cuisine. And then with Alain Ducasse, at the Louis XV restaurant in Monaco.


Six months after the inauguration of his restaurant he was awarded his first Michelin Star; three years later he received his second and in the 2002 guide he was awarded the maximum qualification of the emblematic guide, three. His career involves several major awards and recognitions, such as the Golden Drum of San Sebastian in 2005, the Doctor Honoris Causa awarded by the François Rabelais University of Tours in 2013, and 2019 the Gold Medal of Merit in Fine Arts by the Ministry of Culture and Sport of Spain, among many others.
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