Two new 2 star restaurants in Michelin Guide Spain and Portugal 2015

The Michelin Guide 2015 for Spain and Portugal includes two new restaurants being awarded two stars and 21 being awarded one star. The 2015 selection “perfectly highlights the diversity, the renewal and the creativity of Spanish and Portuguese chefs, who have brought their distinct personalities to the kitchen with innovative, original and unique creations” according to Michael Ellis, International Director of the Michelin guides. The two new two starred restaurants are Aponiente in El Puerto de Santa María (Cádiz), where chef Ángel León sets the tone for with imaginative, Mediterranean-inspired cuisine, and Belcanto in Lisbon, where José Avillez skillfully combines tradition with huge doses of creativity in his quest for flavor and excitement. The addition of these means there are now 21 two-starred restaurants in total. Although there were no new three stars, all eight restaurants to receive three stars last year have all maintained the distinction for 2015. They are: Akelar?e, Arzak, Azurmendi, DiverXO, El Celler de Can Roca, Martín Berasategui, Quique Dacosta and Sant Pau. All of these are in Spain; there are still no three starred restaurants in Portugal. Finally, in the one star category, there are 154 restaurants in total, 21 of which are new. Madrid accounts for the majority of newcomers in the category, with Albora, offering traditional cuisine and Punto MX, where Roberto Ruíz skillfully fuses Mexican tradition with avant-garde cuisine, being among the new winners in the city. In San Lorenzo de El Escorial, in the mountains around Madrid, Luis Moreno and Daniel Ochoa offer signature cuisine using local produce at Montia, a menu-less restaurant where surprises are guaranteed. The Balearic Islands’ strong culinary influence is also highlighted with nine new stars in the region for: Can Dani in Sant Ferrán de ses Roques (Formentera) in the hands of chef Ana García Jiménez, Andreu Genestra in Capdepera (Mallorca), run by the chef of the same name, and Simply Fosh in Palma (Mallorca), where Marc Fosh is in the kitchen. In the other areas of Spain, there are two new Michelin-starred restaurants in the Basque country, two in Castilla y León, and the remaining number are located across the Iberian Peninsula. Meanwhile, Portugal has gained two new one-starred restaurants: São Gabriel in Almancil-Faro, where Leonel Pereira places flavor at the center of an innovative cuisine that remains rooted in local traditional cooking, and Pedro Lemos in Porto, where the chef who lends his name to the restaurant offers his own interpretation of Portuguese cuisine. This gives them 11 one-starred restaurants in total. Summary Retained three stars: Akelar?e Arzak Azurmendi DiverXO El Celler de Can Roca Martín Berasategui Quique Dacosta Sant Pau    New two stars: Aponiente Belcanto   New one stars: Tatau Bistro El Retiro Andreu Genestra Simply Fosh Can Dani Kazan El Carmen de Montesion La Lobita Refectorio Pakta Ourense DSTAgE La Cabra Punto MX Álbora Montia Aizian Elkano Casa Manolo São Gabriel Pedro Lemos   By Stuart Armstrong