Who is Andreu Genestra, the chef who turned Mallorcan soil into a Michelin star?

Andreu Genestra was born in Inca, in inland Mallorca, in 1983. Still a teenager, he had his first taste of kitchen work at an Iberostar group hotel before training at the Escola d'Hoteleria de les Illes Balears.

His path then took him through several notable kitchens: the Condes de Barcelona hotel, then the Read's hotel in Mallorca alongside British chef Marc Fosh, followed by a stint at the Relais & Châteaux Son Brull, where he deepened his grasp of high-end Mallorcan cuisine. He rounded out his training with stages at Mugaritz under Andoni Luis Aduriz and at Arzak, then joined elBulli for the 2008 season, partly extended into 2009.

In April 2011 he opened his own restaurant at the rural hotel Predi de Son Jaumell, in Capdepera, on Mallorca's north-eastern tip. There he developed a territory-driven cuisine he calls «cuina a la terra», built on produce from his own vegetable garden and on long-overlooked ingredients such as carob and Mallorcan black pork.

The restaurant earned its first Michelin star in 2015. In December 2021, when the distinction launched in the Michelin Guide España & Portugal, Andreu Genestra became the first chef on Mallorca to receive the green star, which rewards a restaurant's environmental commitment. «Creating another model of gastronomy, a different path from what's standard today», he told El Español on 4 December 2023, describing what the star means to him.

In February 2023, the restaurant announced its move to the Zoëtry Mallorca hotel, at Sa Torre in the municipality of Llucmajor, on the other side of the island. Like any restaurant that changes address, it lost its Michelin star and green star in the process, before winning both back in autumn 2023 with the presentation of the Michelin Guide España 2024.

The restaurant reopened for a new season in spring 2025, with its vegetable garden expanded to more than two hectares, supplying most of the vegetables, herbs and edible flowers used in the kitchen. The Michelin Guide España 2026 confirms the Andreu Genestra restaurant, in Llucmajor, with one star and a green star, alongside two Repsol suns.

On 26 March 2026, Andreu Genestra was among seven Michelin-starred Balearic chefs received in audience by the president of the Balearic government, Marga Prohens, at the Consolat de la Mar in Palma, alongside Marc Fosh, Macarena de Castro and Fernando Pérez Arellano among others. A meeting scheduled for thirty minutes ran on for two hours, with the chefs making the case for greater visibility for Balearic gastronomy as a cultural and economic driver for the islands.

His fourth season at Zoëtry Mallorca, launched in 2026, brought a new tasting menu named «Mediterráneo» and a private dinner concept called «Mesa a Solas», served under the stars on the historic Sa Torre estate. In parallel, Genestra also took on the culinary direction of La Reserva Rotana, another Mallorcan address, adding to the projects he now runs on and off the island.

Photo credit: souvenir photo with a customer, taken on 15 December 2014, cropped to keep only chef Andreu Genestra; CC BY-SA 4.0 licence, Wikimedia Commons.

This portrait was prepared with AI assistance, then cross-checked, verified and edited by our editorial team, who take full editorial responsibility for it. Facts verified on 18 August 2026.