FROM ELBULLI TO MANILA: CHELE GONZÁLEZ’S ART AND AITOR ZABALA’S DREAM REUNITE TWENTY YEARS LATER
Spanish chefs Chele González (Gallery by Chele, Manila) and Aitor Zabala (Somni**, Los Angeles) will cook together again on October 9 and 10 in Manila.**
Manila, September 16 – Two careers born from the same school and shaped thousands of miles away from Spain now converge in the Philippines, bringing together two distinct universes – the gallery and the dream – for a unique dinner entitled “Evolution”, connecting Manila and California through local produce, technique and a shared understanding of place.
More than twenty years after their paths first crossed in the kitchens of elBulli, Chele González and Aitor Zabala will once again cook side by side. Their reunion takes place in Manila, far from their shared starting point in Spain and after both chefs have built deeply personal careers thousands of miles apart.
Gallery by Chele evokes the idea of culinary art, observation and the exploration of a territory; Somni – “dream” in Catalan – speaks of imagination, memory and creativity. In Manila, for the first time, these two worlds will come together.
The reunion brings together two chefs closely connected to a generation shaped by elBulli’s gastronomic revolution and by an approach to cooking that transcended borders. González later broadened his experience at restaurants including Mugaritz and El Celler de Can Roca before embarking on his journey to Asia. Zabala, meanwhile, developed much of his career in the United States, where he spent a decade as Creative Director of ThinkFoodGroup alongside José Andrés before establishing his most personal project, Somni.
Their destinations were different, yet their journeys reveal a clear parallel: both took the knowledge and techniques acquired in Spain to places that were initially unfamiliar to them and built their own culinary identities there, deeply connected to local produce and culture.
González found in the Philippines the territory in which to develop his cuisine. After more than a decade of research, travel and close relationships with local producers and communities, he has created at Gallery by Chele a culinary proposal that celebrates the Philippines’ biodiversity, ingredients and culinary traditions through a contemporary lens. His work was recognised in 2025 with a Michelin Star and a Michelin Green Star.
Across the Pacific, Zabala followed a comparable path in California. At Somni – “dream” in Catalan – he has developed a cuisine rooted in his Catalan heritage while engaging with California’s exceptional produce, multicultural character and gastronomic identity. In 2025, Somni was awarded three Michelin Stars.
The Philippines and California thus become two ends of the same culinary conversation. Two territories far removed from Spain, where González and Zabala have learned to observe, interpret and cook through the places they chose to call home, applying a global technical language while remaining firmly connected to the origins of the ingredients they work with.
The collaboration emerges precisely from the space between them: what happens when two chefs who began at the same school meet again twenty years later, having developed entirely individual culinary languages shaped by the places they ultimately chose to call home outside Spain?
The answer will unfold through a menu created jointly by the two chefs, with Filipino produce as its starting point, bringing González’s experience across the archipelago into dialogue with Zabala’s perspective, shaped by Catalonia and California.
More than a four-hands collaboration, the dinner will be a meeting of two parallel journeys: from elBulli to Manila, through the Philippines and California; from territory to technique; from the gallery to the dream.
EVENT DETAILS
Dates: Friday, October 9 and Saturday, October 10
Time: 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Venue: Gallery by Chele
Reservations: gallerybychele.com
ABOUT AITOR ZABALA AND SOMNI
Aitor Zabala is the chef and co-owner of Somni in Los Angeles, California. Born in Barcelona, Zabala spent his formative years working in some of Spain’s most influential restaurants before taking his culinary career to the United States.
In June 2025, just seven months after Somni reopened at its current West Hollywood location, the restaurant was awarded three Michelin Stars. The distinction made Zabala the first Spanish chef to earn three Michelin Stars outside Spain.
ABOUT CHELE GONZÁLEZ AND GALLERY BY CHELE
Chele González has made the Philippines his home and has spent more than a decade developing a cuisine deeply connected to the country’s ingredients, producers and culinary traditions.
At Gallery by Chele in Manila, González champions local sourcing, environmental stewardship and biodiversity. In the inaugural edition of the Michelin Guide Philippines, published in 2025, Gallery by Chele was awarded one Michelin Star and a Michelin Green Star, recognising both the restaurant’s culinary excellence and its commitment to responsible gastronomy.
González also holds another Michelin Star for his project Asador Alfonso, while several of his other establishments are recommended by the prestigious guide.
>Gallery By Chele images HERE<
>Press Kit Chele González HERE<
> Somni images & press kit HERE<
>>More information in this LINK<<
PRESS CONTACT
Vanessa Kroop – vanessak@mateoandco.es M: +34 608 849 809
