Marshes, Mills And Michelin Stars: Spain's 'chef Of The Sea'

El Puerto de Santa Mar�a, Spain, Sept 20 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 20th Sep, 2023 ) :As a child, Angel Leon spent hours fishing in the marshes of Cadiz in southwestern Spain -- and today the chef draws inspiration from this terrain for his three-star Michelin restaurant.

Leon, 46, has pushed the boundaries of seafood at Aponiente, serving up plankton rice, squid cheese and mussel pudding at the avant-garde eatery in El Puerto de Santa Maria, a fishing town in the heart of the Bay of Cadiz.

The sea is "an extraordinary pantry" that cooks often overlook, Leon told AFP, sporting a tattoo of a turtle on his forearm.

"The problem is that human beings are always selective" in the products they chose to eat, said the energetic chef, who believes in steering away from the latest fashions and suggesting "everything we find" in the ocean is likely to be edible.

The chef, who is also experimenting with new sustainable ingredients and innovations, is known in Spain as "el chef del mar" or "the chef of the sea".

Born in Jerez de la Frontera, Leon spent his childhood in the Bay of Cadiz where he would go fishing with his brother and father, a doctor, on weekends.

A poor student, Leon was passionate about fish and how to cook them, and decided to turn this passion into his profession.

As a teenager he enrolled at a Seville hotel and catering school, then earned his stripes in France at the acclaimed Le Chapon Fin restaurant in the southwestern city of Bordeaux.