Celia Jiménez Caballero (born 19 February 1976) is a Spanish chef, who when she was

head chef A chef de cuisine (, French for ''head of kitchen'') or head chef is a chef that leads a kitchen and its cooks. A chef patron (feminine form ''chef patronne'') (French for ''boss chef'') or executive chef is a chef that manages multiple kitche ...

at El Lago restaurant became the first female chef in Spain to win a

Michelin star The ''Michelin Guides'' ( ; ) are a series of guide books that have been published by the French tyre company Michelin since 1900. The ''Guide'' awards up to three Michelin stars for excellence to a select few restaurants in certain geographic ...

Career

Celia Jiménez trained at La Cónsula de Málaga, a successful cooking school which went on to produce several

winning chefs. She said at the time, the expectation on menus was that it would feature staple

fine dining Fine dining is a restaurant experience that is typically more sophisticated, special, and expensive than at a typical restaurant. The décor of such restaurants features higher-quality materials, with establishments having certain rules of din ...

dishes such as

foie gras ; (, ) is a specialty food product made of the liver of a Domestic duck, duck or Domestic goose, goose. According to French law, ''foie gras'' is defined as the liver of a duck or goose fattened by ''gavage'' (force feeding). ''Foie gras'' i ...

, cavier and

scallops Scallop () is a common name that encompasses various species of marine bivalve molluscs in the taxonomic family Pectinidae, the scallops. However, the common name "scallop" is also sometimes applied to species in other closely related famili ...

. While she found that when training there was a better split of male and female chefs, she later said in an interview that over time the number of female chefs declined because of the pressures of leaving work to start a family. While working as

at the restaurant El Lago in

Marbella Marbella ( , , ) is a city and municipality in southern Spain, belonging to the province of Málaga in the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is part of the Costa del Sol and is the headquarters of the Association of Municipalities of the re ...

, she won a Michelin star. This was the first time that a female Spanish chef had done so. She found the initial experience after the award to be chaotic, due to the increased expectations of diners and the volume of media requests. After the star was awarded, she continued to modify the menu served, although was not interested in introducing

molecular gastronomy Molecular gastronomy is the Science, scientific approach of cuisine from primarily the perspective of chemistry. The composition (Structural formula, molecular structure), properties (mass, viscosity, etc) and transformations (chemical reaction ...

elements. In 2015, she opened her own establishment, Restaurant Celia Jiménez, within a sports complex in Cordoba. While she wished to continue serving fine dining, she also wanted to be accessible. Jiménez incorporated part of her work from her time working on food research at Bodegas Campos, in order to present her own take on modern

Andalusian cuisine Andalusian cuisine is the regional cuisine of Andalusia, Spain. Notable dishes include gazpacho, fried fish (often called ''pescaíto frito'' in the local vernacular), the jamones of Jabugo, Valle de los Pedroches and Trevélez, and the wines ...

at the new restaurant. This includes a concentration on promoting the use of

jamón ibérico Jamón ibérico (; Spanish for "Iberian Ham"), known in Portuguese as presunto ibérico (), is a variety of ''jamón'' or ''presunto'', a type of Curing (food preservation), cured leg of pork (primarily Black Iberian pigs) produced in Spain and P ...

, Iberian ham.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jimenez, Celia Living people 1976 births Spanish chefs Spanish women chefs People from Córdoba, Spain Head chefs of Michelin-starred restaurants