Juanlu Fernández

Born in Jerez de la Frontera in 1984, Juanlu Fernández started working in a bakery at the age of 13, getting his first taste of the ingredients that would form the basis of his training. After the bakery, he worked in an artisan bakery, where he began to look beyond and discover his interest in cooking and his desire to learn more about it. At the age of 17, he started working in the kitchen of the Hipotels chain in Chiclana and fell in love with the adrenaline of the kitchen and with cooking as a profession. A year later, he met Martin Berasategui and moved to Lasarte to learn from the Basque, who taught him everything about technique, precision and determination. At the age of 21, he moved to Tenerife to continue working with Berasategui, learning more and more about cooking, management and leadership. At the age of 23, he returned to Cádiz to rise to prominence at Aponiente, where he became head chef.

During the Aponiente years, he took over the gastronomic management of the group and was Ángel León's shadow in all his achievements. At 33, he decided to go it alone and opened LÚ Cocina y Alma in his home town. LÚ is Juanlu's maximum expression as a chef, where he showcases his French-based cuisine, an academic cuisine 'that has partly been lost in the current avant-garde, a cuisine that I want to recover and update with Andalusian touches'.

In less than a year, LÚ was awarded its first Michelin star.