Barcelona’s Disfrutar restaurant heads to The World’s 50 Best gala after ‘exceptional’ year

Barcelona restaurant Disfrutar will go up against the world’s best again this Thursday at The World's 50 Best Restaurants gala. Mateu Casañas, one of the leaders of the culinary project, tells the Catalan News Agency (ACN) that coming out on top of this list would round off a great year. 

The ranking placed Disfrutar in second position in 2023. Its avant-garde cuisine, heir to the mythical El Bulli restaurant, has not stopped receiving awards, as it also picked up three Michelin stars last year, less than ten years after opening its doors for the first time. In addition, Casañas, along with Oriol Castro and Eduard Xatruch who also lead the restaurant, received awards from the Royal Academy of Gastronomy for the best chefs.

The World's 50 Best Restaurants gala will take place in Las Vegas this week, and Casañas says they are “very excited.” “Gastronomy is very subjective because it depends on the people who vote for it, but we are very clear about the path we are creating for ourselves,” he tells ACN. “We know where we are going and what style and values ​​we have," he explains.

Casañas celebrates the three chefs’ aspirations to become global leaders in their field, and believes it is a plus for Catalonia and its gastronomy. "We have been struggling for many years at a very demanding level. When we started with Disfrutar we were very convinced.” 

For the chefs with professional backgrounds spanning 25-30 years each, the keys to their successful project are “creativity, consistency, the tireless search for new ideas, and the opening of new paths," Casañas tells ACN.

The chef insists that whether or not they are named top of the list, they will be satisfied because they have enjoyed an "exceptional" year. However, he says that the values ​​of consistency, regularity, and work will not change no matter what happens at the gala in Las Vegas.

Successful heir to El Bulli

The three chefs worked together at Ferran Adrià's El Bulli restaurant, which closed in 2011. Since then, they decided to reinforce what they had learned at the new El Compartir restaurant which opened in April 2012 in Cadaqués. 

The experience worked for them and in December 2014 they expanded their horizons with a new location in Barcelona’s Eixample district, which boasts a team of 65 people and a waiting list of at least a year. 

In addition, the three chefs opened another Compartir in Barcelona a year and a half ago.