Chef
Speaker
Joao Henrique Faraco
Chef at Coentro (Lanzarote, Spain)
Best Canary Island Chef 2018, this Brazilian has been acclaimed with a mixture of Spanish, French and South American cuisine, albeit always using the produce of Lanzarote, “my island”.
He has been in Lanzarote for eleven years now, and will not be leaving. After studying cookery in Brazil, João Faraco arrived in Spain to cook himself up. He worked at a number of places before settling in with a four-year stint with Jorge Bretón at La Sucursal in Valencia. There he became acquainted with the crème de la crème of haute cuisine, but he also burned himself out there. A job offer from the restaurant at Lanzarote's Princesa Yaiza hotel allowed him to make good his escape.
He arrived in the island, and fell in love.He created a family in Lanzarote, and recently started up his own place, Coentro, in Puerto Calero, “where I make the food I like, and the food I want to make”. His cooking has undertones "of classic Spanish cuisine, of course; notions of the French cuisine I studied in Brazil, and the inspiration of my grand South American chefs. All of which is subject to the local produce here, which is incredible”. Faraco won the 2018 Best Canary Island Chef award.
