NEW VIDEO: Martin Berasategui, Restaurant Lasarte

Martin Berasategui is the chef owner of the three Michelin-starred Restaurant Lasarte in Barcelona, Catalonia.

The restaurant, located in the city-centre Paseo de Gracia hotel, opened in 2006 serving food inspired by the chef's Basque roots and the Catalan gastronomic culture.

"My dishes vary according to what nature, the sea and the seasons offer us," he said.

He learnt the trade from a young age, joining his parents and aunt for the long, 8am to 1am shifts at his family's restaurant. "This is how, day after day, you shape a chef," he said.

Aged 17, he worked six days a week in a bar, but this wasn't enough, so he trained as a pastry chef, and alongside working at his family restaurant spent his spare time learning to cook elsewhere.

"By being grateful to French people for their excellent cooking heritage, we have been able to change the course of cooking."

"Nowadays, people stop here and applaud us, but they are mostly grateful to us for achieving something that we could never have dreamed about - the gastronomic truism that we have achieved."

On Spain's thriving gastronomic scene, the chef said it was "the healthiest" it has ever been.

"Spain has made a superhuman effort during the last decades; we have chefs who have opened a lot of avenues, and the sum of all these avenues is what makes Spanish food as welcome as it is."

The chef applauds the "fresh, talented and naturally gifted" young chefs promising to spur on those who already know and have practiced the trade for their entire careers.

"What I am doing that is non-negotiable is that I want to keep enjoying doing what I love - cooking, being in the kitchen and leading my amazing teams."

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