SHOWBIZ CHEFS

MARBELLA is the place to go star-spotting, particularly in the summer months with Ronaldo, Robert de Niro and Michelle Obama all visiting for a meal over recent years. But for me, the most exciting visitors are the actual chefs themselves, who regularly come down for holidays, but also for a string of key events.

The best of these was the once annual, A Cuatro Manos, organised by Dani Garcia for years at the Puente Romano, where I met the great and the good of Spain’s famous food scene. Plus a few global greats to boot, such as Daniel Humm, of New York’s Eleven Madison Park and international megastar Joel Rubuchon, who sadly died the following year.

My all time favourite interview though was with El Bulli legend Ferran Adria, who told me how much he liked the resort and, in particular, Andalucian cuisine.

I later got to grill the three-Michelin geniuses Joan Roca, of Celler de Can Roca, and Valencia’s Quique Dacosta, among others.