Diego Schattenhofer, speaker at the CaixaBank Michelin Canarias 2026 plaque ceremony
- Published
- Section
- Awards
Twenty-seven plaques for the Canary Islands, at the “all in one” Gran Canaria centre
On Tuesday 10 February 2026, at its “all in one” Gran Canaria centre, CaixaBank presented the plaques accrediting 27 restaurants across the islands as restaurants recommended by the MICHELIN Guide 2026. We were invited to take part in the event and to go up and speak, not to collect a plaque: Taste 1973 belongs to a different category of the guide — it has held a Michelin star since 2024 — and so does not appear on that list of twenty-seven. The day belonged to the colleagues receiving their distinction for the first time, and that is how we experienced it.
The distribution of plaques maps the region well: eleven restaurants in Tenerife, ten in Gran Canaria, five in Lanzarote and one in La Palma. The gathering brought together more than 120 representatives of the food and hospitality sector and was organised by CaixaBank through Food&Drinks, its division specialising in restaurants, bars and cafés, in collaboration with the MICHELIN Guide. It was not a one-off event: it was one of twelve events the bank scheduled across much of Spain during the first quarter of 2026 to present plaques to the more than 700 restaurants the guide selected as recommended across the country.
That a financial institution should devote twelve events to this says something about the moment the profession is living through. And that twenty-seven of those more than 700 restaurants are in the Canary Islands says even more about what has been happening on the islands — an archipelago that, not so long ago, barely featured in these conversations and that today sustains a Canarian gastronomy with a course of its own.
Conscious rigour, mental health and science
Our part of the programme was not about stars or plaques. Diego went up to speak about the importance of scientific psychology applied to high culinary performance, in a joint presentation with Dr José Barroso, a psychologist and professor at Universidad Fernando Pessoa Canarias. According to the report by eldiario.es / Canarias Ahora, the chef set out his philosophy there of maximum rigour to achieve the maximum result.
It is a subject we have been working on at home for years and one that is not always told in comfortable words. In the message we published that same day we summed it up like this: “We believe in conscious rigour, in caring for our teams’ mental health, and in science as the foundation of growth.” Rigour without care burns people out; care without rigour leads nowhere. Finding that point is, for us, work every bit as technical as anything else we do in the kitchen, and that is why we approach it alongside someone who knows the subject: the same way of looking at things that underpins Gastrosinapsis, where cooking meets science and other trades instead of closing in on itself.
Who was in the room
The event was hosted by food journalist José Luis Reina. Speakers included Manuel Afonso, CaixaBank’s territorial director for the Canary Islands; Toni Rodríguez, CaixaBank’s commercial director for Business; Diego Schattenhofer; and Sonsoles López, sommelier and director of Palacio Ico, one of the twenty-seven accredited restaurants, in Lanzarote. CaixaBank itself said afterwards on its social media: “we celebrate the talent that puts the Canary Islands on the world culinary map, and we are proud to stand alongside the 27 professionals who have received the distinction of restaurants recommended by the MICHELIN Guide 2026.”
We left the event with the feeling of having been where we needed to be. We said it then and we stand by it now: “Thank you to CaixaBank and the MICHELIN Guide for inviting us to take part in the presentation of the Michelin Canarias 2026 plaques and for giving us the opportunity to share our vision of gastronomy.” Thanks also to Dr José Barroso for walking this path with us, and to Europe Hotels for believing in and supporting this way of understanding cooking. Congratulations to all the restaurants recognised by the MICHELIN Guide 2026 in the Canary Islands. We keep cooking with purpose.
Read the full report at AtlánticoHoy: the 27 restaurants in the Canary Islands accredited by the MICHELIN Guide and CaixaBank. Coverage of the event is also available at eldiario.es / Canarias Ahora and in CaixaBank’s press release.
Multidisciplinary Collaboration in Canarian Gastronomy: Driving Culinary Innovation