José Antonio Olave Candia

José Antonio Olave Candia’s career is built on kitchen repetition, brigade discipline, and classroom instruction. His background includes ThePowerMBA, Basque Culinary Center, and Cordon Bleu, but the shape of the work is found in a progression from cook training to line cooking, section leadership, teaching, and executive responsibility. He began with cook training at hotel jose antonio and Sonesta Posadas del Inca Yucay in 2005, then worked as cook at Drunken Duck Restaurant from 2005 to 2009.

That stretch reflects the steady development of pace, control, and consistency that defines a dependable kitchen operator. He continued through successive brigade posts, serving as cook at La Meridiana de Alabardero Restaurant in 2010, then as Chef De Partie at Tapadaki Restaurant from 2010 to 2011 and at Taberna Uvedoble from 2011 to 2012. These roles placed him in the part of the kitchen where organization, standards, and pressure management matter most.

Teaching entered the career in 2013 to 2014, when he worked as Chef Teacher at Basque Culinary Center. That appointment shows a chef trusted not only to execute technique but to explain it. During the same period, he also completed Cook Training at Grupo Dani García in 2013 and Cook Training at RESTAURANTE RODERO SL in 2013, keeping the learning side of his career active alongside instruction. Executive responsibility followed at ENBOCCA Restaurant, where he served as Executive Chef from 2014 to 2015.

He then completed Cook Training at Osteria Francescana Restaurant in 2015 before moving in 2016 to Head Chef, pfg área de operaciones y nuevos proyectos gastronómicos at Acurio Restaurantes. That role pointed beyond day-to-day service into operations and new project work. International leadership continued in 2017 as Executive Sous Chef at La Mar Cocina Peruana SF in SF, followed by Executive Chef at Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group in 2018.

From 2019 to 2023, he served as Executive Chef at YAKUMANKA by Gaston Acurio, then as Executive Chef at Grupo Paraguas from 2024 to 2025. He currently holds Executive Chef roles at Acurio Restaurantes and Ultramarinos Quintín in Madrid. Together, these positions reflect a career formed across service, teaching, and management, with experience that spans training kitchens, the line, section leadership, and senior kitchen direction. His work is defined less by novelty than by sustained competence and the ability to carry responsibility across different kinds of kitchens.