Dabiz Muñoz

Dabiz Muñoz (born David Muñoz; he uses the Andalusian spelling Dabiz) is a Spanish chef and restaurateur, born in Madrid in 1980. He attended the Escuela Superior de Hostelería y Turismo de Madrid and spent his early twenties working in London at Hakkasan, Nobu London and Nahm under David Thompson — three of the most important East-Asian fine-dining restaurants in Europe at the time. The decision to train in London rather than in classical Spanish or French kitchens shaped the entire direction of his career: his cooking is built much more on the techniques of Cantonese, Japanese and Thai cuisine than on the Spanish haute tradition.

In 2007, with his then-partner Ángela Montero, he opened DiverXO in the Tetuán neighbourhood of Madrid — a tiny restaurant in a former pharmacy, named to evoke divertimento (entertainment) and XO sauce. The cooking from the start was a hybrid of Madrid produce, Chinese dim-sum technique, Thai chile balancing and Japanese fish work, served in fast, theatrical sequences with cartoon-strip plating. DiverXO earned a first Michelin star in 2010, a second in 2012, and a third in 2014 — at which point Muñoz, aged thirty-three, became the youngest Spanish chef ever to hold three Michelin stars.

DiverXO moved to a larger location in the NH Eurobuilding hotel in 2014 and has remained one of the most discussed and most divisive restaurants in Europe. Muñoz was named The Best Chef in the World by The Best Chef Awards in 2021, 2022 and 2023 — three consecutive years, a feat no other chef has achieved. He runs the casual StreetXO concept in Madrid and London (closed 2020), and the more recent RavioXO (a dim-sum-focused concept inside El Corte Inglés in Madrid, opened 2023).

Muñoz is also a significant public figure in Spain — frequently in the tabloid press because of his long marriage to and divorce from singer Cristina Pedroche, and as a vocal critic of Spanish restaurant industry economics, having opened public arguments about Madrid's wage and rent structures relative to those of London and New York.