DINING
Azurmendi, a Michelin 3-Star restaurant located near Bilbao, Spain, named Most Sustainable Restaurant in the World, is the product of famed chef, Eneko Atxa, who is also one of the youngest chefs to ever achieve 3 Michelin Stars.
The Azurmendi restaurant was designed and built on sustainability, Atxa’s philosophy to life and cooking. The building itself reuses rainwater for the garden, greenhouses, toilets and more. The large open windows make you feel like you are outdoors and takes advantage of the sunlight to reduce the need for artificial light and energy, it produces renewable energy to cover part of the restaurant’s energy needs, and produces a portion of the ingredients used in the kitchen in their greenhouses on site–planting more than 800 trees to reduce CO2. The building as a whole is a testament to the commitment to sustainability Atxa is advocating for–a truly inspirational masterpiece.
Eneko created The Bestfarmers.eco project, a new project that aims to create a huge network of small producers all over the world. The Bestfarmers.eco project is a digital platform that highlights some of the best producers in the world, divided by country and category - you will be able to find out who are the best producers for vegetables, dairy products or meat in Japan, France or Brazil. The project is a collaboration of many international chefs, who have shared their favourite products, following certain criteria when assessing the producers, such as organoleptic characteristics, product traceability, mode of delivery. The contributors include people like Gastón Acurio, Ana Roš, Joan Roca, Pascal Barbot, Grant Achatz, Heinz Reitbauer, Alex Atala and Andoni Luis Aduriz.