Diego René

The Path

Technique here is built around rice, and Diego Ren’s training at Centro de Desarrollo Turístico de Alicante reads as the base that supports that focus. In Málaga, that foundation carries into a practice split across concept, direction, and service, with Beluga, Kraken, Pez Wanda, and Cambara each asking for a different kind of kitchen control. The work is not limited to one pass at the line; it runs through several rooms, with Ren’s titles marking the same responsibility from different angles. At Beluga in Málaga, the combination of chef, co-owner, and kitchen director places Diego Ren inside both authorship and execution. That same range extends across the city in roles that include kitchen director at Kraken, kitchen director at Pez Wanda, and chef executive, director, and kitchen supervisor at Cambara. Taken together, the positions describe a chef working in a managed network rather than a single dining room, with each post requiring the same disciplines of oversight, adjustment, and continuity.

The Work Today

Rice is the clearest line through Diego Ren’s cooking. It is the form he returns to, and the one he describes with the most direct language: “I have an arrocero soul from Levante and then another soul that is very much Malaga.” The phrase places his work between two culinary identities at once, one tied to rice tradition and the other to the local character of Málaga. Place naming is part of the method in his cooking, and he uses it without ornament. “This rice is made with a Malaga ham from Ronda, pure Malaga chestnut ham, also Malaga olive oil.” The dish is framed through its own ingredients and geography, with each element doing the work of location rather than decoration. In another description, he reduces the build even further: “I make a rice dish and add some little cubes.” That kind of phrasing points to a style that trusts proportion and restraint over excess. The way he reads other kitchens is just as exact. “When I get to a city, the first thing I look at is the Michelin-starred restaurants to visit them all.” For an artisan, that is less a travel note than a working habit: observe the standard, compare the field, and measure your own practice against what a city values at its highest level.

In Their Words “When I get to a city, the first thing I look at is the Michelin-starred restaurants to visit them all.” “This rice is made with a Malaga ham from Ronda, pure Malaga chestnut ham, also Malaga olive oil.”