Crete Is Getting 11 (!) Michelin Stars This Summer & We Have the Details

Javier and Sergio Torres grew up in Barcelona, and by the time they were eight years old, cooking was already the thing that mattered most. The credit, they have always said, goes largely to their grandmother Catalina, who cooked for aristocratic families and understood instinctively that food was a form of precision and care. That understanding became the foundation of everything that followed.

Their training took them through some of the most demanding kitchens in Spain, Switzerland, and France before they brought it all back to Barcelona. Dos Cielos, their first restaurant together, earned two Michelin stars. When they outgrew it, they didn’t refine it. They closed it and started again, this time with more space and a clearer vision.

The result was Cocina Hermanos Torres: an 800-square-meter former industrial warehouse in which the kitchen sits at the center of the room, visible and central, the point around which everything else is organized. Two Michelin stars arrived in 2019, a third in 2022, a Green Star for sustainability in 2023. In 2024, the international Best Chef Awards placed them 20th in the world. Their cooking is not easy to describe without making it sound quieter than it is. The ingredients are handled with minimal intervention. The dishes look simple. They are not. The depth is in the restraint.

Nicolai Nørregaard

Kadeau, Copenhagen

Nicolai Nørregaard is the head chef and co-owner of Kadeau in Copenhagen and Kadeau on Bornholm. Born and raised on the island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea, he was deeply influenced by his grandfather, who grew his own vegetables, caught seafood, and preserved ingredients to remain self-sufficient through the winter months.

The smokehouses of Bornholm, especially the one run by Nicolai’s uncle on the island’s west coast, stand at the center of Kadeau’s philosophy. With their tall chimneys marking the landscape, only 10 remain in operation today. His uncle belonged to the last generation of craftspeople still using the traditional open-chimney smoking method, a slow process that requires constant attention to the fire.

As an early figure in the Nordic food movement, Nicolai brought these deeply rooted practices into the center of his cooking. Kadeau works in close alignment with the seasons. During summer, the team gathers produce from the restaurant’s garden, the island’s forests, and its beaches. A large part of the year is also devoted to preserving that seasonal abundance so the kitchen remains supplied through winter with the produce and materials of Bornholm.

Emmanuel Pilon

Le Louis XV, Monte Carlo

Emmanuel Pilon trained in Lyon under two Meilleurs Ouvriers de France, Christian Têtedoie and Davy Tissot, before joining the Ducasse world in 2009. His first posting was Le Louis XV in Monaco, working alongside Franck Cerutti and Dominique Lory.

From there he moved to Paris, where he spent eight years as Assistant Chef at Alain Ducasse au Plaza Athénée, working closely with Romain Meder on Naturalité Cuisine, the kitchen philosophy that placed nature and seasonality at the center of haute cuisine. A further chapter came through ADMO, the pop-up that brought together Romain Meder and Albert Adrià under the Ducasse name.

Alain Ducasse later handed him the kitchen at Le Louis XV in Monaco, where he now leads the restaurant. Ducasse on the appointment: “He knows Mediterranean cuisine well and brings his experience, rigour and sensitivity to it. He will enrich the restaurant’s offering by putting his creativity at the service of Naturalité cuisine.”

Nikos Leivadias

Tudor Hall, Athens

Nikos Leivadias has spent the better part of his career cooking in some of Greece’s most recognized dining rooms, from Lycabettus Restaurant in Oia and Electra Palace to Andronikos in Mykonos, before taking the kitchen at Tudor Hall, the restaurant of the historic King George hotel in the center of Athens.

At Tudor Hall, he cooks with Greek ingredients at the core and a technique shaped by international kitchens, treating traditional flavors as a foundation rather than a constraint. The kitchen holds a Michelin star for the second consecutive year, a distinction that speaks to both the consistency of the cooking and its contribution to how Greek cuisine is understood by an international audience.

Giorgos Samoilis

Cantina, Sifnos

A former molecular biologist with a PhD in biochemistry, Giorgos Samoilis moved into gastronomy after cooking for friends in Sifnos. Having lived and worked extensively in Brazil, he absorbed the country’s rich culinary culture before turning his attention fully to food. The founder and head chef of O3 Fish and Wine Bar has long focused on sustainability, locality, and seasonality.

Today, Samoilis cooks at the zero-waste restaurant Cantina in Sifnos, drawing inspiration from the Greek islands and Latin America to shape a dining experience with strong character and a distinct point of view.

Gkikas Xenakis

Aleria, Athens

Born and raised in Thebes, Gkikas Xenakis traces some of his earliest memories to good food and the rhythms of life in the Greek countryside. That sense of origin and familiarity with simple ingredients remains central to his cooking. A graduate of Le Monde culinary school, he has worked in Greece and abroad alongside notable chefs.

As head chef of Aleria, he has led one of Athens’ best-known restaurants through a period of continued recognition, including its latest Golden Chef’s Hat, one of Greece’s highest culinary distinctions. His cooking draws on Greek culinary tradition and regional variety while bringing his own creative language to the table.

Amaury Bouhours

Le Meurice, Paris

After studying at the hospitality school in Soissons, Amaury Bouhours began his path in gastronomy as an intern at Louis XV – Alain Ducasse in Monaco. He then continued as Commis Chef at Alain Ducasse au Plaza Athénée in Paris, where he worked under Christophe Moret, Christophe Saintagne, and Romain Meder.

He quickly rose to Head Chef de Partie and then Junior Sous-Chef before joining Adrien Trouilloud as Sous-Chef at Lasserre. Bouhours now serves as Chef de Cuisine at Le Meurice. Alain Ducasse has said that he chose him because he has the capacity to embody a new stage in the life of the restaurant.

Angeliki Charami

Omnia Restaurant, Kastelruth

Angeliki Charami has spent her career quietly becoming one of the most interesting figures in Greek plant-based cooking. Her kitchen CV runs through some of the country’s most design-conscious addresses, including Vammos and Ekali Club (the kind of Athens places where the crowd is as considered as the menu), before she moved on to lead the kitchens at Mama Tierra and Crudo. From 2020, she headed the culinary program at Koukoumi in Mykonos, the first vegan hotel in Greece, which put plant-based fine dining on the map in a country not exactly known for restraint at the table.

She now serves as Executive Chef at Omnia Plant-Based Restaurant in Kastelruth, set in the Dolomites of Italy. Her cooking draws on both classic vegan technique and Japanese influences, built around handmade, minimally processed ingredients. The result is a fine-dining approach that makes the case for plant-based cuisine not as a diet but as a point of view.

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