her father as joint head chef, and together they developed the Arzak cuisine further. She says that the most important thing for their partnership to work is respect for each other.
They have a laboratory in their restaurant where they experiment and create new, innovative dishes. Arzak seeks to unite traditional Basque cuisine with modern influences and non-traditional ingredients of the Northern Spanish kitchen, to create a new style. Arzak’s father always supported
his daughter’s experimental ideas and was willing to take chances, not knowing if the ideas they came up would be successful or not. The dishes she creates resemble pieces of art and she describes Arzak’s cuisine as “singular, Basque, evolving, research-based and avant-garde”.
Next to being a creative, extraordinary chef, Arzak is mother to her two children, Mateo and Nora. Although it is stressful to work at night and manage the everyday struggles of being a mother, she says it is the same for her as for any other working mother and with the children at school, things have been easier. The children like the special dishes she creates, but at home she cooks simpler food, she reveals.
Elena Arzak was honoured with the Veuve Clicquot’s Best Female Chef award in 2012. Arzak says that the award is not only for her, but also for her mother Maite, aunt Serafina and grandmother Paquita, who made Arzak famous and taught her to cook.
By Vera Kleinken
See our features on Arzak including a look at it's history, an interview with Juan Mari and a snapshot of Elena's career here
