Marcos Saenz

The Training Saenz worked at Casa Santo Domingo, in Antigua Guatemala, with Chef Mario Campollo Sarti. That experience is one of the named Guatemalan points in his biography. He also had experience at Mugaritz, in San Sebastián, Spain. The experience changed his perspective and vision of cooking. Saenz is Guatemalan, and that origin is part of the way his work is described at Villa Bokéh. In Antigua Guatemala, where he serves as executive chef, his cooking works with organic and local products while combining technique, creativity, and aesthetics. The sentence is compact, but it carries a full method: product first, technique in service, beauty as part of the discipline.

The Lineage As chef/owner at Al Fresco in Kyiv, Saenz brings his work into Ukraine. The role places a Guatemalan chef in Kyiv, with a career also connected to Antigua Guatemala and San Sebastián. His work at Villa Bokéh keeps the Guatemalan line active. There, the cooking is rooted in organic and local products, technique, creativity, and aesthetics. Saenz’s own words draw the boundary with precision: "We are not trying to be a European hotel in Guatemala. We celebrate who we are, proudly and without compromise." That statement connects directly to the kitchen practice attached to the hotel: organic and local products, handled with technique, creativity, and aesthetics. It also gives shape to the larger set of places in his career. Casa Santo Domingo is a named Guatemalan house where he worked with Chef Mario Campollo Sarti; Mugaritz changed his vision; Villa Bokéh is a place where local expression is spoken plainly; Al Fresco carries his ownership and cooking into Kyiv.

The Table The table in Saenz’s career is built across more than one place. Antigua Guatemala remains central through Villa Bokéh and through his 2025 role as a judge for Cocinando con Flores, also in Antigua Guatemala. At the same time, Kyiv gives his work another address through Al Fresco. The restaurant is a primary role attached to him: chef/owner, a title that joins authorship and responsibility. Read beside his executive-chef role in Guatemala, it shows a cook whose career includes Guatemala, Spain, and Ukraine.