Pablo Vicari

The Path

Technique took shape at Luís Irizar School of Cookery, where Pablo Vicari trained before moving into Elkano in Getaria. That sequence matters: formal instruction first, then a place whose identity was already closely defined, then responsibility layered on top of repetition. From 2006, he served as gastronomy adviser at Elkano in Getaria, a role tied to oversight, adjustment, and the steady work of keeping a kitchen’s language precise. By 2012, that work expanded into head chef at Elkano in Getaria and co-director of new projects at Elkano, placing Vicari in charge of both day-to-day execution and the shape of what came next. Today, Pablo is chef of Cataria. The career arc is built on continuity rather than spectacle: training, then trust, then leadership. Luís Irizar School of Cookery, Elkano in Getaria, 2006, 2012, Cataria — each mark a step in a progression defined by place and responsibility. Read together, they show a cook advancing by absorbing an existing house logic and carrying it forward with greater authority.

In Their Words “Tradition is, by definition, sustainable. What is not sustainable is modernity.” The statement is plain and deliberate: a case for continuity over novelty, and for methods that remain viable because they have already endured. Pablo Vicari’s view frames the kitchen as a place where repetition, memory, and discipline carry real value. At Cataria, that reads as an approach rooted in inherited logic rather than rupture — work that treats longevity as a practical standard, not a slogan.