For the new generations of chefs the name of Luis Irizar does not say much, but this cook, a native of Havana, but raised in Donostia, is considered one of the founders of the New Basque Cuisine.
As explained Pedro Subijana to El Diario Vasco, Irizar is “the professional father” of many of the best-known chefs on the Basque scene, who helped shape through the first cooking school in northern Spain, Euromar, in Zarautz, where Subijana himself, Karlos Arguiñano and Ramón Roteta were trained, among others. In 1992 he opened the Luis Irizar Cooking School, already in Donostia, where year after year new students are trained who become part of a new generation of cooks.
Irizar has passed away with 91 years in Donostia, the city in which he lived since, at the age of three, his parents, natives of Igeldo, returned from Cuba.
The cook began his career as an apprentice in the hotel restaurant María Cristina, in the post-war era. Then he passed by the Monte Igueldo restaurant and the disappeared Jockey of Madrid before consecrating himself as head chef at the London Hilton Hotel.
KA: “I am sorry for the death of my Master Luis Irizar. Without him, my professional life would not have been the same … I send a warm hug to the whole family and acquaintances. Besarkada bat guztioi.” pic.twitter.com/cCF8xfBU0G
– Karlos Arguiñano (@karguinano) December 9, 2021
Already in his own restaurant, Gurutxe Berri in Oiartzun (Gipuzkoa), it achieved the first Michelin star for the province.
Last year, Abalon books public a tribute to his figure, in a recipe book entitled Maestro de Maestros, which includes texts by Andoni Luis Aduriz, Karlos Arguiñano, Juan Mari Arzak or Martín Berasategui, among others.
As reported by Efe, and in the obituary published by the Zorroaga funeral home in the capital of Gipuzkoa, Irizar has died today and his wake will be installed tomorrow, Friday.
Image | Luis de las Alas for Abalon Books
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