Eneko Atxa
🇪🇸 Spain · Spanish cuisine · b. 1977
The Basque chef who built a three-Michelin-star restaurant powered entirely by its own farm and rainwater.
Biography
Eneko Atxa is the chef and owner of Azurmendi, a three-Michelin-star restaurant in the Basque village of Larrabetzu, fifteen kilometres outside Bilbao. The restaurant occupies a self-designed building of glass and concrete built into the hillside above the family's txakoli vineyard, and is among the most architecturally and ecologically ambitious fine-dining restaurants ever constructed: it is powered entirely by geothermal energy and rooftop photovoltaics, harvests rainwater for all kitchen and bathroom use, recycles all heat from the dining-room ventilation back into the greenhouses below, and grows a significant proportion of the menu's herbs, vegetables and edible flowers in its on-site garden and seed bank.
Atxa was born in Amorebieta-Etxano, in Bizkaia, and trained at the Leioa hospitality school in the late 1990s before working in several traditional asadors in the Basque Country. He opened the original Azurmendi in 2005 in a smaller building on the same site and earned the first Michelin star in 2007, the second in 2010 and the third in 2012. The current building opened in 2011 and has won, in addition to the three stars, the Michelin Green Star, the Sustainable Restaurant Award at The World's 50 Best Restaurants (2014) — the first such award in the list's history — and the Best Sustainable Restaurant trophy at the World Restaurant Awards (2019).
Atxa's cooking is recognisably Basque — built around the cured cod, idiazabal cheese, txakoli wine, txangurro spider crab and txuleta steak that define the region's pantry — but is delivered through a tasting-menu format that begins outside the dining room (in the txakoli vineyard, where guests are served the opening snacks among the vines) and progresses through the greenhouse, the kitchen pass and finally the main dining room. He also operates the casual Eneko Bilbao at the Azkuna Zentroa cultural centre in central Bilbao, the Larrabetzu casual restaurant Prêt à Porter, and the London restaurant Eneko at One Aldwych which held a Michelin star until its closure in 2020.
Cooking Philosophy
Cooking inside an ecosystem. Atxa argues that the most important decisions a chef makes are not at the stove but in the design of the building, the choice of the energy source and the integration of the kitchen with the surrounding land. Azurmendi's architecture, its rainwater system, its greenhouse and seed bank and its txakoli vineyard are not amenities — they are the cooking. He has been a vocal advocate within the World's 50 Best community for the position that sustainability accounting should be a Michelin criterion of equal weight to technique.
Restaurants
- AzurmendiLarrabetzu (Bizkaia)
Three Michelin stars (since 2012); Michelin Green Star; first ever winner of the Sustainable Restaurant Award at The World's 50 Best Restaurants (2014).
- Eneko BilbaoBilbao (Azkuna Zentroa)
Casual restaurant in the city's flagship cultural centre, opened 2017.
- Prêt à PorterLarrabetzu
Bistronomic restaurant on the Azurmendi site, opened 2014.
- Eneko at One AldwychLondon (closed 2020)
One Michelin star; the group's London outpost from 2016 to 2020, closed during the pandemic.
- ENEKO TokyoTokyo (Marunouchi)
Basque restaurant opened 2018 in partnership with a Japanese hospitality group.
Awards & Recognition
- Three Michelin stars — Azurmendi (since 2012)
- Michelin Green Star — Azurmendi
- Sustainable Restaurant Award — The World's 50 Best Restaurants (2014, first ever)
- Best Sustainable Restaurant — World Restaurant Awards (2019)
- No. 28 — The World's 50 Best Restaurants (2014, peak ranking)
- Best Chef of the Year — Madrid Fusión (2012)
Iconic Dishes
Cookbooks
- Azurmendi: a Sense of Place (2013)
- Eneko: Basque Home Cooking (Octopus, 2018)
In Eneko's Own Words
“The greenhouse, the rainwater tank and the txakoli vineyard are the kitchen. The stoves only finish the work that those three rooms have already begun.”
— Azurmendi: a Sense of Place (2013)
“I want the diner's first sip of wine to be taken in the field where the grape grew. From that moment the rest of the meal explains itself.”
— World's 50 Best interview (2014)
Career Timeline
Graduates from the Leioa hospitality school in Bizkaia.
Joins his uncle Gorka Izagirre at the family's txakoli winery and bistro in Larrabetzu.
Opens the first version of Azurmendi in a small building on the family's vineyard hillside.
Azurmendi awarded its first Michelin star.
Awarded second Michelin star.
Opens the current Azurmendi building — a self-designed structure of glass and concrete, fully energy- and water-self-sufficient.
Awarded third Michelin star; named Best Chef of the Year at Madrid Fusión.
Wins the first ever Sustainable Restaurant Award at The World's 50 Best Restaurants ceremony.
Opens Eneko at One Aldwych in London.
Opens ENEKO Tokyo in the Marunouchi business district.
Frequently Asked Questions about Eneko Atxa
Where is Azurmendi located?
Azurmendi is in Larrabetzu, a village in the Txorierri valley of Bizkaia in the Spanish Basque Country, about fifteen kilometres north-east of Bilbao and a twenty-minute drive from Bilbao airport. The restaurant sits on a hillside above the Gorka Izagirre txakoli winery, which is owned by Atxa's extended family and supplies the house wines.
Is Azurmendi really self-sufficient?
Largely yes. The 2011 building is powered entirely by geothermal heat exchange and rooftop photovoltaics; all kitchen and bathroom water comes from a 60,000-litre rainwater harvest tank; all heat from the dining-room ventilation is recycled into the on-site greenhouses; and a significant proportion of the herbs, vegetables and edible flowers used on the menu are grown in the greenhouses and gardens immediately below the dining room. The restaurant has won the Michelin Green Star and the inaugural Sustainable Restaurant Award at The World's 50 Best Restaurants partly on the basis of independent verification of these claims.
What is the tasting-menu format at Azurmendi?
An Azurmendi tasting menu begins outside the dining room. Guests arrive at reception, are then led into the txakoli vineyard for the opening snacks, walk through the greenhouse for a second set of bites, pass through the working kitchen for a course at the pass, and only then are seated in the main dining room for the principal courses. The format is meant to integrate the building and the landscape into the meal rather than to keep them on the other side of the kitchen door.
Is Atxa related to the family that owns the winery?
Yes. The txakoli winery on whose hillside Azurmendi is built — Gorka Izagirre — is owned by Atxa's extended family. Gorka Izagirre is his uncle, and the partnership between restaurant and winery has been the foundation of the project since Atxa opened the first version of Azurmendi on the site in 2005.
Does Atxa have a restaurant in London?
Atxa operated Eneko at One Aldwych on the Strand in central London from 2016 until its closure in 2020, when the pandemic forced the One Aldwych hotel to terminate the partnership. The restaurant held one Michelin star throughout. He has indicated in interviews that he intends to return to London with a new project when conditions allow.
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