Edorta Lamo

Born into a catering family, Edorta Lamo (Campezo, 1979) studied at the Cookery School in Oñati (Gipuzkoa), and travelled to continue to learn and grow. Among other locations, he was in New Jersey (US), where the young Lamo combined his trade with his love of music and the underground culture of the time. When he came back, he worked in kitchens in Sierra Nevada and Granada until he ended up in the San Sebastián restaurant Branka, where Pablo Loureiro - now chef and owner of Casa Urola - taught him a passion for produce. He topped up those years with another facet as DJ in a number of clubs in the city.

After a spell at Arzak, he finally set up his own business, A Fuego Negro, and this was where he took off. A Fuego Negro was an off-the-wall, line-crossing, roguish outlet selling pintxos, local but rather daring, in Donostia's Old Town. After 15 years he left the city to open a restaurant on his own turf, right in the centre of the mountains of Álava. The fare served by Lamo at Arrea! is his own gastronomy, with much emphasis on the local and the autochthonous, an outlet based on the culture and history of the town and the mountain, the main exponent of which is shadowy cuisine, the historical food of the local territory.