San Sebastian, open city', the title of a poem by Gabriel Celaya, will be the slogan of the next edition of San Sebastian Gastronomika - Euskadi Basque Country, which will be held from 7 to 9 October and which, while consolidating its roots in Donostia and Gipuzkoa, aims to open up even more to other formats and expand the range of training courses on offer for professionals in the hotel and catering sector. 

In the first days of October, the Kursaal Palace in San Sebastian will once again bring together a large number of top national and international chefs. The doyen of gastronomic congresses has always crossed borders, and this 26th edition will be no exception. From Lima to Copenhagen, from Chicago to Le Castellet and Florence. This is the diversity of the "journey" proposed by San Sebastian Gastronomika - Euskadi Basque Country for 2024, a year that will also serve to celebrate the career of one of the most important chefs of the last 50 years and one of the fathers of the new Basque cuisine, Pedro Subijana, at the helm of Akelarre*** since 1970, who will receive this year's Tribute Award. Subijana is also the only chef to have participated as a speaker in the 25 editions of San Sebastian Gastronomika.

Longest running congress

After the success of the 25th anniversary of the longest-running gastronomy congress, Gastronomika is taking inspiration for the next edition in October from the great uniqueness of this event, the only thing that is unrepeatable, the city: San Sebastian. With this in mind, the congress organisers have taken the poem by Gabriel Celaya as a starting point for a programme that seeks to reconnect the congress with Gipuzkoan society, to anchor it even more firmly in its surroundings and to open it up to all possible formats. 

To this end, this year it will focus on the region, the hotel and catering industry, restaurants, bars and gastronomic associations, as well as the big stars. San Sebastian Gastronomika - Euskadi Basque Country is a world reference in the field of gastronomic congresses because it has an open mentality that accepts everything. That is why it wants to go beyond its own walls. To this end, it will programme part of its activities outside the Kursaal to share the limelight with the bars and restaurants of the capital, San Sebastian, and take congress participants to some of the most important gastronomic associations. 

Confirmed speakers

All of this is part of a programme that is currently being finalised and in which many important names have already been confirmed. Chefs from various open cities where gastronomy has played an important role, such as Copenhagen, Lima, London and Florence, will be in San Sebastian. There will also be chefs from some Asian cities, to be announced soon. Kristian Bauman (Koan**, Copenhagen), a chef born in South Korea and known for his innovative approach and ability to combine Nordic cuisine with Asian influences, will be coming from Denmark.

From LexCastellet, it is the turn of France's most fashionable chef, Fabien Ferré (La Table du Castellet***, Le Castellet), the young chef who, at 34, won over the Michelin inspectors and achieved three stars in one night, becoming the youngest in the history of the Red Guide in his country.  

Other confirmed speakers include Karime López (Osteria Gucci da Massimo Bottura*, Florence), the first Mexican woman to be awarded a Michelin star.
 
From the other side of the Atlantic, chefs Pía León (Kjolle, Lima), one of the great chefs of Latin America, whose personal project is to promote Peru's biodiversity through her cuisine, and her partner Virgilio Martínez (Central, Lima), who runs the best restaurant in the world for the 50Best 2024 list, will fly to San Sebastian.

First Filipina with a star

Gastronomika 2024 will also feature Tim Flores and Genie Kwon (Chicago, USA), chefs and owners of Kasama, which means 'together' in Tagalog (Filipino dialect), the world's first Michelin-starred Filipino restaurant, which operates as a bakery by day and a restaurant by night in Chicago's East Ukraine Village neighbourhood.
 
The list of confirmed chefs is completed by Eneko Atxa (Azurmendi***, Larrabetzu), Elena Arzak (Restaurabte Arzak***); the leaders of the Disfrutar*** project in Barcelona, Oriol Castro, Eduard Xatruch and Mateu Casañas, who will arrive for the first time as three-star chefs; Luis Alberto Lera (Restaurante Lera*, Castroverde de Campos, Zamora) or Jorge Muñoz and Sara Peral (Restaurante OSA*, Madrid), revelation chefs of Madrid Fusión 2024 and protagonists of one of the most acclaimed restaurant openings in Madrid last year. 

San Sebastian Gastronomika - Euskadi Basque Country will also have a space dedicated to the fair, which will occupy one hundred percent of the space set up in the Kursaal, with more than 150 exhibiting companies on the list of participants this year.