Marta Minoves will represent Catalonia at the European Young Chef Award 2024

Young chef from the CETT-UB culinary school, Marta Minoves will represent Catalonia at the 8th edition of theEuropean Young Chef Award, held in Sicily from 27 to 30 November.  Her dish "Interpretation of grandma Marta's patates emmascarades" won the Catalan Young Cooking Competition 2024, where she also received the Catalan Food prize, awarded to the dish with the greatest potential to represent the Catalan Region of Gastronomy at the European competition.

Marta Minoves, 22, grew up in Berga and is a graduate in Culinary and Gastronomic Sciences from CETT-UB, specialising in haute cuisine. She combined her studies with summer jobs that gave her a rich source of practical learning. She has worked in various places such as Berga (La Cabana), Vic (PaVic, under Lluc Cruselles, World Chocolate Master winner), Formentera (L’Aigua, with Nandu Jubany) and Ibiza (at a very special restaurant, Xuclar). To complete her university studies she had the honour of doing her placement at Aponiente, a 3-Michelin-star restaurant specialising in the marine world, under chef Ángel León. 

Her dish is a reinterpretation of her grandmother Marta's patates emmascarades, which she tasted so often as a child and which the family served at Fonda Tor. Now, with her training and practice in creative haute cuisine, she wants to update it while staying true to the essence of local produce from Central Catalonia and to no-waste cooking, striking a perfect balance between vegetables and animal protein.

It is with this version of a typical Berguedà dish, that Marta Minoves will represent Catalonia at the European Young Chef Award, a competition run byIGCAT (Institute of Gastronomy, Culture, Art and Tourism) , which brings together the winners of regional competitions from across Europe to promote innovation in traditional cooking, champion sustainable food cultures and create future ambassadors for regions and local food products.

The competition's 8th edition is held in Sicily, from 27 to 30 November. This year, alongside chef Marta Minoves, representing Catalonia, the participants are Jasmin Kärkkäinen (Saimaa, Finland),Óscar Roca (Menorca), Kaja Naveršnik (Slovenia), Polina Nazarova (South Aegean, Greece), Giulia Casano (Gozo, Malta), Kincső Szász (Harghita, Romania) and Rosaria Grasso (Sicily, Italy).

The jury is made up of Jose Luis Marques (Portugal), director of the Coimbra School of Hospitality and Tourism and IGCAT expert; Frida Jensen (Denmark), owner of Façon by Frida and a renowned pastry chef; Boštjan Volk (Slovenia), winner of the European Young Chef Award in 2023; Iulia Drăguț (Romania), IGCAT expert; Theodor Tørrissen (Norway), an experienced chef, advocate of sustainable food practices and IGCAT expert; and Martina Caruso (Sicily), head chef of the Michelin-starred Signum restaurant in Salina.

Catalonia, World Region of Gastronomy 2025 

In 2025, Catalonia will be World Region of Gastronomy and ambassador of the 9th European Young Chef Award. The recognition confirms the consolidation of an innovative, regenerative tourism model in which Catalonia's culinary revolution goes far beyond restaurants and opens the door to discovering the territory and its distinctive local food production