Andreu Genestra

The Climb

Formal training at Escola d’Hoteleria de les Illes Balears gave Andreu Genestra a technical base inside the Balearic context rather than apart from it. The professional route that followed moved through scale, service pressure and creative kitchens: he began a wide-ranging ascent through the kitchens of Iberostar, then as cook at Hotels in Mallorca, Spain, Hotel Condes de Barcelona, Spain, under Marc Fosh at Hotel Read’s in Mallorca, Spain, Son Brull in Mallorca, Spain, El Bulli, and Mugaritz. El Bulli and Mugaritz placed Andreu Genestra close to the technical and conceptual changes that shaped modern Spanish cuisine, while the repeated return to Mallorca kept the island’s produce, customs and appetite in the frame. The current structure is multiple rather than singular: Andreu is owner of Andreu Genestra restaurant, owner of Aromata, and manager of the food of Lío Mallorca (since 2023). Each role gives the cooking a different register, from composed dining to a more direct reading of Mallorcan product.

Today

Contemporary Mallorcan cuisine, as practiced by Andreu Genestra across his restaurant that carries his name and Aromata in Palma, Mallorca, depends on moving between constructed plates and recognizable island flavors. His work in Illes Balears, Spain, keeps creative cuisine and a grounded Mallorcan register in contact, so the plate can carry architecture without losing the cadence of local eating. At Mediterranean by Andreu Genestra in Llucmajor, Spain, the cooking fuses Mediterranean tradition with modern innovation and emphasizes local and sustainable ingredients. The named dishes set out the grammar clearly: scampi with lentil stew and passion fruit; tongue with capers and soup consommé; suckling pig broth cannelloni with Mallorcan fried brains; spice meringue with suckling pork rillettes. The combinations use contrast as a working method: shellfish against legumes, acidity against richness, capers against depth, and pork treated through broth, cannelloni, brains, meringue and rillettes while keeping the Mallorcan reference visible. Aromata works in a simpler register: local product, careful preparation and Mallorcan tradition, a style Genestra calls *cuina de la terra*. The distinction is practical rather than hierarchical. Mediterranean by Andreu Genestra carries the more exploratory edge; Aromata stays closer to product and the table. His own phrasing connects the two: “I love cooking local produce from a different perspective, making things evolve.”

Signature

The signature dishes — Scampi with lentil stew and passion fruit, Tongue with capers, soup consommé, Suckling pig broth cannelloni with Mallorcan fried brains, and Spice meringue with suckling pork rillettes — show a cook working by tension rather than decoration. Marine delicacy is set against legumes; tongue and consommé carry depth with capers for lift; suckling pig is pushed through broth, cannelloni and offal; pork rillettes meet spice meringue. The Mallorcan references remain present, but they are carried into a modern dining room through structure and contrast.

In Their Words “I always think: would I make this dish for my mother? Because, if the answer is no, what’s the point?” “I love cooking local produce from a different perspective, making things evolve.”

Recognition

Andreu Genestra has received 1 Michelin Star. Recognition for this Mallorcan contemporary practice includes Michelin Star (2015) and Two Repsol Suns. In Andreu Genestra’s case, those honors sit beside a career shaped by return: to Inca, Mallorca, to Illes Balears, Spain, to local product, and to the working idea that innovation has more force when it remains accountable to the place that supplies it.