Nahuel Navarro, 20-Year-Old Argentine Chef, Chosen To Work At World's Best Restaurant

Even though he doesn’t even look 20 years old, Argentinian chef, Nahuel Navarro, has been chosen to do an internship at the kitchen of El Celler de Can Roca, in Girona, Spain. The prestigious restaurant was named Best Restaurant in the World in the San Pellegrino list rising from the second spot to the very top of the food chain (literally) stealing the throne from last year’s winner, Copenhagen eatery, Noma. Navarro says he’s been cooking since he was a little boy, by copying what his mom, Estela, did in their family home in Villa del Parque, Argentina.

The young chef was discovered while working at the charity community kitchen “Camino Abierto,” which feeds 12 people with its farm-to-table products, which caught the Chefs’ attention. Navarro was initially contacted by one of the Roca brothers (El Celler chefs) to go work in Rural with them in Spain, where he met the entire team. “On the last day of that internship, they brought all the kitchen staff into the dining room, in front of 100 guests and announced I was going to Girona. I couldn’t believe it!”

Navarro says he was very surprised he won: “I wasn’t obsessed with winning,” he explained. “I don’t even consider myself an exceptional cook, but I put a lot of passion into everything I do.” The chef remembers his mom once told him that things made with love are always the best, and he believed it.