When Juan Mari told his mother that he wanted to go to catering school, she tried to persuade him to choose a career with a brighter future. Sixty years later, the social prestige of gastronomy is enormous. The change has been nothing short of revolutionary, and today many children are encouraged by their parents to become great cooks. Juan Mari has lived through this revolution in person and has been a fundamental part of it. Arzak, the family eatery located on Alto de Miracruz in San Sebastián, has become one of the best restaurants in the world. Now, a new generation has taken over. Elena Arzak, Juan Mari’s daughter, is now in charge of the restaurant and her father is retiring little by little. It’s a time to reflect; to weigh up an entire life. Time to analyse the transformation of traditional cooking in the new auteur cuisine.

ARZAK was an economical eatery which opened its doors in 1897. Today, after more than 100 years of gastronomic history, it is one of the few restaurants in the world to have maintained three Michelin stars for three complete decades. What best defines the Arzak family is that they have never moved from their original location on Alto de Miracruz in San Sebastián. That loyalty to the origins, that tribute to former generations, is part of their successful formula.

At the same time, ARZAK is true to its taste, the taste of the people around it. Its philosophy has always been to cook the flavours of the Basque Country faithfully. Juan Mari Arzak continues to make use of his ground-breaking cooking, that which led to him receiving the first Michelin star in 1972 and the third in 1989, a recognition which he has maintained since then and shares with his daughter Elena Arzak. She is the living reincarnation of that Basque cuisine which looks out at the world, so characteristic, so surprising. At the same time, Elena carries responsibility for the restaurant at the moment, she is the present and future of ARZAK.

Right now, very importantly in the biography of the man and the history of the restaurant, Juan Mari is retiring from the front-line, passing all the weight of the business to the hands of the next generation, led by his daughter Elena. We are lucky that ARZAK has opened its doors to us, the doors of its house, of its intimacy, to become direct witnesses of such an important moment.

Elena’s role is not easy. It’s difficult to avoid being labelled as “the daughter of”. She has had to take charge of the restaurant without her father stopping work at any point. She is heading one of the few restaurants which has not lost its three Michelin stars for three decades, with everything that this implies. What’s more, she is a woman in a world, the world of cuisine, which is almost one hundred percent dominated by men. How do father and daughter deal with the generational changeover? What does it mean to Juan Mari to delegate the business and all that ARZAK involves to his daughter Elena? And what is it like for Elena to assume the mantle of the weighty name that is a landmark in cuisine?