La Rioja

Speaker

Carolina Sánchez

Chef en Ikaro* (Logroño, Spain)

Along with her partner Iñaki Murúa, Sánchez has earned herself a Michelin star at her Ikaro restaurant in La Rioja. They met when they were studying at the BCC, and after they had learned the trade at other restaurants, they decided to set up in Logroño.

Carolina Sánchez was born 36 years ago in Cuenca (Ecuador), and her dreams are shared on both sides of the Atlantic. She is the first Ecuador chef who has won a Michelin star, held since 2019 by Ikaro (Logroño) - her project with her partner from Álava, Iñaki Murúa - and in her native country she is a genuine celebrity thanks to her role as a member of the MasterChef jury panel.

Sánchez arrived in Spain after studying gastronomy in her own country and in Peru, with the idea of studying for a master's at the Basque Culinary Center and going back home. Meeting Iñaki changed the plan, but not her intentions of making a success of cookery, and she has done so with the Ikaro project, which has earned a Michelin star and also a Repsol "Sol" award.

The restaurant in La Rioja combines flavours and local produce - fish, meat and vegetables - with fruit, cereals and condiments from her native country, such as white cocoa and tree tomato barbecue sauce. She would also like to work on an Ecuador menu, "but I've given up with maizes, because people don't like them", she admits.

Sánchez, who learned her trade at El Celler de Can Roca - "the school of perfection" - also worked in the kitchen at the Hotel Viura's restaurant in Rioja Alavesa, where she became Juan Carlos Ferrando's chief assistant, and with the Echapresto brothers at Venta Moncalvillo before setting up her own outlet in 2017.

Carolina Sánchez

Partners

PUBLIC BODIES

Asturias Cocina Paisaje Paraíso Natural

SPONSORS

Fagor Profesional Reale Seguros

CONTRIBUTORS

Ayuntamiento de Langreo Coalla Ecomuseo Minero Valle de Samuño Garcia Rodriguez Hermanos Le Nouveau Chef Makro Sobrescobiu