Italy
Speaker
Karime López
Chef at Gucci Osteria da Massimo Bottura* (Florence, Italy)

Karime López became the first woman to be awarded a Michelin star for her work at the Gucci Osteria restaurant.
Karime was born in Mexico into a family of restaurateurs and although she initially wanted to pursue a career in art, she ended up following the family tradition. She went to Paris to study art, but gastronomy crossed her path and she ended up studying cooking in Seville. From there she began a journey that would take her to various gastronomic temples such as El Racó de Can Fabes, with Santi Santamaria, Mugaritz; Nihonryori RyuGin, in Tokyo; Pujol, in the CDMX; or Central, in Peru.
She met her future husband, Taka Kondo, who worked with Massimo Bottura and eventually moved to Italy. Eventually, Bottura proposes that she take charge of his new space in collaboration with the Gucci fashion house. The project opened in 2018, and her work at the helm of the restaurant earned her the first Michelin star awarded to a Mexican chef.