Diego Schattenhofer in El Día: "Qué bien la toca Diego"

Qué bien la toca Diego

By Jose Luis Reina, in El Día, 17 September 2026.

The Tenerife newspaper El Día has published, in its gastronomy section, within the “Desde la barra” column, a piece by Jose Luis Reina devoted to Diego Schattenhofer and Taste 1973. The author declares his admiration for the Argentine cook and expressly rejects the word “obsession” to describe his cooking. He writes in the wake of a recent celebration at the restaurant, presided over by the owners, the Gassmann family, headed by founder Axel Gassmann.

Reina spares no praise for the moment the house is going through: “Its current menu is well-rounded, the elegant dining room is a match for it after the successful refurbishment.” But what he values most is not any particular dish, but the collective work: “Diego’s greatest gastronomic achievement is not any single dish, but that ability to have built a team that follows him with tremendous talent.” He names the front-of-house managers, Aníbal Morales and Alberto Somoza, and makes clear that, for him, that team is the chef’s true achievement. We recognise ourselves in that reading: no one here cooks alone.

The column also describes a new stage in which the diner can be guided through the inner workings of the restaurant, from the laboratory to the fish and cheese chambers, before ending the tour in the kitchen itself. And it highlights the Canarian cheese trolley, ground we have been working for years alongside that of matured Canarian goat. All of this at a restaurant that opened in January 2019 at the Hotel Villa Cortés, in Playa de Las Américas, and that has held a Michelin star since 2024 and a Repsol Sun.

The piece closes with a question and its answer: “Is this a menu, a team and a dining room capable of achieving a new two-Michelin-star restaurant in Tenerife? Bloody hell, yes. Of course it is.” It is worth saying clearly: this is the critic’s personal assessment, not an awarded distinction. Taste 1973 holds one star, and the work of every service remains exactly the same as always.

We thank Jose Luis Reina and El Día for a piece that puts the focus exactly where we like to see it: on the people who make it possible.

Read the full piece on El Día: Qué bien la toca Diego.

Cover portrait: Instagram @diegoschatten.

Taste 1973 Receives the 2024 Annual Award from the Academia de Gastronomía de Santa Cruz de Tenerife

Diego Schattenhofer, Among the Revolucionarios of Spanish Gastronomy