Santi Santamaria 53 Spanish Chef

[MWB]

MADRID (AP) — Santi Santamaria, a Spanish chef with a three-Michelin-star
restaurant in Barcelona and other fine eateries, has died. He was 53.

Santamaria died on Wednesday in Singapore at the his Marina Bay restaurant
named Santi, said Ruben Mallat, manager of the three-star restaurant El Raco
de Can Fabes in Barcelona. Mallat said the cause of death was not
immediately unknown.

One of a generation of chefs who brought Spanish cuisine to the attention of
international gourmets, Santamaria prided himself on using natural, seasonal
ingredients to make Mediterranean-style dishes.

Born in Sant Celoni, outside Barcelona, Santamaria opened Can Fabes in 1981.
By 1994, the restaurant had become the first in Spain to attain three
Michelin stars. He owned three other restaurants in Spain which also
garnered Michelin stars.

Author of some 10 books on cooking, Santamaria was awarded Spain's National
Gastronomy Prize in 2009.

He clashed with Spanish culinary guru Ferran Adria and other chefs who
brought high-tech methods to Spanish cuisine, arguing they used the same
potentially unhealthy additives as hamburger joints. The criticism came to a
head when he published his book "La Cocina al Desnudo" (The Naked Kitchen)
in 2008.

Back then an international association of chefs, called Euro-toques, which
3,500 members from 18 countries, including 800 in Spain that also included
Adria, issued a statement accusing Santamaria of trying to gain publicity
and alarming consumers unnecessarily. It said the additives used in
Adria-style cooking were legal and safe.

Santimaria shot back, demanding that chefs specify what ingredients they
use.

Funeral arrangements were not immediately made known.