Barcelona is the 15th city in the world with the most Michelin stars and the 3rd in Europe, only behind Paris and London

Guifré Jordan/Barcelona - Barcelona is the fifteenth city in the world with the most Michelin stars, according to data from the same guide obtained by the ACN with the 2025 update for most countries. The Catalan capital totals 39, in a ranking headed by Tokyo (220) and Paris (157). The French city is the leader in Europe, Barcelona is third on the continent –also behind London (103)– and is first in the State, followed by Madrid (37). In addition, Hermanos Torres, Lasarte, Disfrutar and ABaC push the city to seventh place in the world in terms of number of three-star restaurants, with 5 out of a total of 148. According to the Catalan Academy of Gastronomy, the "gastronomic culture that is terribly pervasive everywhere" and the impact of chef Ferran Adrià explain the figures.

The Michelin Guide gala last November at the Spanish level once again enthroned Barcelona as a reference for haute cuisine, with 39 stars in 29 different restaurants. Madrid has the same number of establishments with the recognition, but in total they add up to 37 stars. While the Catalan capital is the seventh city in the world in terms of three-star restaurants, only Cinc Sentits and Enoteca Paco Pérez have two, which leaves the city far behind Tokyo, with 26 restaurants of this type.

Barcelona also has 23 one-star restaurants, which places it in 14th place on the planet in this category. Fishology, Mae, Prodigi and Teatro Kitchen & Bar joined the list with an award each at the gala held on 26 November in Murcia, while Xerta lost the distinction.

The president of the Catalan Academy of Gastronomy and Nutrition, Carles Vilarrubí, points to two factors to understand the success of the city and the country in haute cuisine: on the one hand, the talent and gastronomic culture and, on the other, the "epiphany" that the "phenomenon" Ferran Adrià represented. In an interview with ACN, he says that the chef of the historic El Bulli was groundbreaking thanks to innovation and talent, and made "a revolution" that has attracted a multitude of followers around the world. Regarding Barcelona's positioning, he explains that "it is the head and home" of a territory "that has a strongly rooted gastronomic culture, the result of a unique landscape and product".

According to him, innovation hatched with "flowers" like Adrià and other chefs who have contributed to the "garden" that currently represents the country's haute cuisine, but he adds that "flowers do not appear in barren territory"; for him, the "sensitivity" of citizens and culinary "supply and demand" have been a decisive factor, as well as the projection of Catalan gastronomy made by the media in recent decades.

Girona, among the 100 cities with the most stars in the world

On the other hand, Celler de Can Roca, Divinum and Massana add five stars in total for Girona and place the city among the 100 with the most distinctions in the world. At the state level, only Barcelona (39), Madrid (37), Valencia (10) and San Sebastián (10) are ahead.

Overall, Catalonia will have 77 Michelin stars throughout 2025, seven more than last year. The figure represents almost 22% of the total awards granted by the guide throughout the country, which in turn continues to be at the forefront of haute cuisine around the world. Thus, Spain is fifth, only behind France (757), Japan (474), Italy (458) and Germany (395). The tire manufacturer does not have guides in every country in the world, and only distributes distinctions to around forty states.

Catalan cuisine, only predominant in a starred restaurant

The Michelin guide categorizes each restaurant with the predominant type of cuisine, and in this aspect Catalonia follows the dominant global trend. If around the world those who make modern cuisine and those who specialize in creative cuisine are the two that lead the ranking, the same circumstance applies to Catalonia. Those who offer meals categorized as 'modern' add up to 25 establishments in the country and 26 stars, while creative ones register 21 restaurants and 35 stars. Those who make contemporary cuisine follow them at a great distance (5), as well as those who make it traditional (4) or Japanese (2).

The guide places Els Casals, in Sagàs (Berguedà), as the only Catalan restaurant with distinction – and in the rest of the world – that mainly makes Catalan cuisine. In this sense, Vilarrubí regrets that the sector fails to "value the traditional cuisine" of the country. According to him, this is the result of a "deficit" that the territory has in valuing what is local. For this reason, he explains, the academy he represents has been splitting the National Gastronomy Award into two awards for two years: that of signature cuisine and that of traditional cuisine. Vilarrubí believes that the two spheres should be "equalized" and that the most renowned chefs "knew how to make a picada and a sofrito before spherifying".

On the other hand, the president of the institution explains that French cuisine has been and will continue to be a "reference" for high-level Catalan kitchens, but that "in the last 25 or 30 years there has been a strong influence, an earthquake, Japanese". He justifies this by underlining the "simplicity" of Japanese cuisine, as well as the fashion and tendency to cook in a more "healthy or simple" way. Other great powers, such as the Nordic countries, he points out, have not had as much impact in Catalonia.

At the same time, he believes that Catalan haute cuisine is "a quarry of attraction for young people who come from all over the world to learn things here and then leave". So much so, he assures, that in Japan there are restaurants that "know what it's like to fry fish like we do here" or make dishes like pa amb tomàquet.

Two out of every three Michelin stars, in Europe

While France only has Paris as a prominent city on the list of those with the most awards and Japan has Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka in the 'top 10', starred restaurants are much more widely distributed across the French geography and reach 623 towns. In the Japanese country, you can have a meal at an establishment with distinction in 377 municipalities.

The data also reflects the European hegemony in the awards, with two out of every three stars. Specifically, 2,950 of the 4,386 distinctions are in the Old Continent, while almost a quarter are in Asia (1,031). At the same time, 370 are in North America, 35 in South America, and none in Africa or Oceania.

The data compiled by the ACN show the 2025 ranking for almost all the countries covered by the guide, with some exceptions: for Austria, Portugal, France and Belgium, the 2024 ones have been used, since the new year's ones have not yet been communicated, they will do so between January and March.