The Zaranda restaurant of the chef Fernando Pérez Arellano in Es Capdellà (Calvia) has been awarded with a second Michelin star. In the 2016 Michelin Guide for Spain and Portugal, Zaranda is the only Spanish restaurant to obtain a second star other than Coque (chef Mario Sandoval) in Madrid. The guide has awarded no new three stars, while handing out fifteen first awards, eight of them in Andalusia and Catalonia. The Majorcan Santi Taura (with restaurants in Lloseta and Palma) will, for now, have to wait.
Zaranda has attained its second star thanks to, as stated by the guide’s director, Michael Ellis, “the chef’s own style of cuisine, which is of excellent technique, and which looks to combine the quality of local produce in achieving astonishing fusions of flavours”. Fernando began his career in Dublin before moving to London where he worked alongside great chefs like Gordon Ramsay and Michel Roux Jr before eventually returning to Spain and winning his first Michelin star for his restaurant in Madrid.
Spain has not received any new three stars since the 2014 edition when the Madrid DiverXO was awarded a third, but the eight three stars that exist remain in place. Although there has been no increase for the second year running, the guide recognises that, through the one and two stars, “our cuisine has both current success and future promise”. In addition to Zaranda, the restaurants in Majorca with one star are: Bou (Tomeu Caldentey); Jardín (Macarena de Castro); Andreu Genestra; Es Racó des Teix (Joseph Sauerschell); Simply Fosh (Marc Fosh); Es Fum and St. Regis Mardavall (Rafa Sánchez). The guide, which is now on sale, highlights eight restaurants with three stars for their “exceptional cuisine,” 23 with two stars for “excellent cuisine” and 157 with one star which are “very good in their category”.