Have you heard of Chef José Pizarro? There are Spanish chefs all over the world, running their own top-class restaurants and José is one of them.

This immensely popular chef is originally from rural Cáceres in Extremadura but has lived in the UK for almost 25 years, where he has opened eight restaurants, mostly in London. But before moving to the UK he trained in some of Spains top restaurants reaching the position of Head Chef at a Michelin star restaurant.

He opened his first restaurant José on Bermondsey Street in London, offering simple and traditional tapas. From there he opened a string of restaurants. But he hasn’t just opened them there but also on in Abu Dhabi at the Conrad Hilton.

He has also published a line of regional Spanish cookbooks. He has also made several appearance on some of the UK’s most popular cooking or ‘foodie’ programmes He’s aregular guest chef on BBC 1’s Saturday Kitchen, ITVs This Morning, Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch, Weekend Kitchen with Waitrose, Rick Stein’s Christmas, Food Network’s The Big Eat, and the popular ITV show – James Martin’s Saturday Morning.

So why are we talking about the UK based Spanish chef in this local magazine covering southern Granada? Well, in a recent competition in the UK he gave as prizes meals at both Restaurante MarDeLa and Restaurante Firmvm, something that speaks volumes on the quality of these restaurants in La Herradura and Almuñécar.

Yes, José Pizarro teamed up with the Almuñéca/La Herradura Board of Tourism to cook up a special dish that embodied Almuñécar La Herradura’s traditional flavours. Two lucky winners in the UK won this ultimate 5-night gastronomic holiday prize with all expenses paid.

(News: Herradura/Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)