Leticia Landa, winner of the Basque Culinary World Prize 2025

Created by the Basque Government and the Basque Culinary Centre in 2016, this award has been celebrating chefs with transformative initiatives, professionals who, with talent, knowledge and creativity, transcend the usual frameworks of restaurants to generate impact in different areas.

For the first time, the winners of this award gathered at the Basque Culinary Centre, located on the Donostia Campus of the Basque Country Technology Park, for a unique day featuring various activities: an event open to the public and, to conclude, the Basque Culinary World Prize 2025 award ceremony.

The Basque Culinary Center auditorium witnessed how cuisine can contribute to advances in science and technology, how to join the fight against global warming, how to influence food education and child nutrition, how to join the defence of biodiversity, how to promote changes in consumption habits that reverse the increase in diseases such as diabetes and obesity, how to be part of efforts that promote the social development of communities, and how to support local producers and territories, indigenous cultures and threatened identities in a globalised world, among other things.

MUCH MORE THAN AN AWARD

The Basque Culinary World Prize is a unique, global award presented by the Basque Government and the Basque Culinary Center, which recognises the work of chefs with transformative initiatives in areas such as innovation, technology, education, the environment, health, the food industry, and social and economic development.

It was launched in 2016 to provide testimonies of how gastronomy can be a transformative force, highlighting the work of men and women who are entrepreneurs and committed to excellence; people who are innovative and creative; tenacious, but above all, committed to their society.

More than 1,250 nominations and nearly 850 nominees from 42 countries, more than 50 finalists and special mentions, and 10 winners from countries such as Venezuela, Colombia, Australia, the United States, Spain, Sierra Leone and Turkey, have formed the basis for analysis of an award hailed by the press as the ‘Nobel Prize of Gastronomy’, supported by internationally renowned academics and experts, including some of the best chefs of our time.

In each edition, the Basque Culinary World Prize, through the winner and special mentions, takes the opportunity to send a message and raise awareness among the international community of the different areas in which a chef can add value.

LETICIA LANDA, WINNER OF 2025

Leticia Landa was named winner of the Basque Culinary World Prize 2025 for her role in La Cocina, a 20-year-old project aimed at generating training, incubation and support opportunities for talented individuals seeking to formally integrate into the restaurant sector in San Francisco (USA), who are part of marginalised communities, so that they can lead their own businesses, make them profitable and, ultimately, become part of the productive heart of their cities, thus transforming their environments through gastronomy.

More than 40 restaurants, cafés and kiosks operating in the San Francisco Bay Area have gone through the programme. Among its greatest achievements, Landa highlights that 70% of participants have active businesses 10 years after graduating.

The €100,000 prize money from the Basque Culinary World Prize will be used in this edition to support the chef’s initiative, which benefits people and society. According to Leticia Landa, ‘it has been incredible for me to win this award and see how La Cocina’s profile has risen worldwide in recent weeks. More than anything, seeing how excited all the chefs I have worked with for so many years have been to see La Cocina in the news has filled me with joy. It has meant a lot to our community.’