NAVARRA GOURMET

Vita of prize winners

Gianola Nonino

EVA Award. Category: "Food Entrepreneur of the Year"

Gianola Nonino is one of the most important businesswomen on the Italian gastronomic scene. Her company, of worldwide fame, is one of the champions of the renaissance of Italian grappa, probably North Italy's oldest distillate. The Nonino family tradition dates back to 1897, with Orazio Nonino, and has reached the modern day in the form of Gianola. Based in Percoto, province of Udine, since 1928, the distillery has two grappa production lines with a total of 42 discontinuous steam stills. Gianola Nonino and her family are also known for the internationally coveted "Nonino Prize", awarded to a "Master of our Time".

Léa Linster

EVA Award. Category: “Chef of the Year”

The "star" chef of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the only woman, to date, to have won the prestigious Bocuse d'Or. Despite receiving this international award, presented every two years in Lyon and considered the World Championship in the art of cooking, Léa has never veered towards the more media-focussed paths of her profession, but has remained true to her country roots and her devotion to culinary craftsmanship. She gave up studying law and took over her parents' roadside restaurant to transform it into a sanctuary of frugal luxury where a premium is placed on the authenticity of basic ingredients, many of which come from neighbouring farms or her own vineyards in the Moselle Valley.

Atxen Jiménez

EVA Award. Category: "A Life of Gastronomy"

A good part of the fame of Navarrese cuisine is down to people like Atxen Jiménez, who combine that perfect blend of friendliness in the dining room and wisdom when it comes to the dishes their kitchens proffer. Atxen has now notched up 50 years of devotion to and passion for the catering industry, having worked in practically every field of the business since she started work in her parents' bar at the tender age of 15. Graceful, a classical music lover, art collector and outstanding hostess, this lady of gastronomy has made Túbal, her restaurant in the historical village of Tafalla, a flagship of the continuance and adaptation to the times of the great culinary tradition of the land of her birth.

Mandi Ciriza

EVA Award. Category: “Tendencies”

Mandi Ciriza is the director of In-house Production Channels at ChelloMulticanal and director of Canal Cocina, a pioneering Spanish television theme channel which has fast become the undisputed gastronomic reference point on the small screen. The EVA Award in the “Tendencies” category is more than justified this year thanks to the level of popularisation of gastronomy achieved and entertainment provided by Mandi and her team over recent years through television, which will soon be switching over to digital, something which is sure to revolutionise yet further both the information broadcast on such an evocative subject and the very way in which viewers become familiar with it.

Kasia Romanska

EVA Award. Category: “Woman of Wine”

Polish-born Kasia Romanska has a deep knowledge of every corner of the world of wine, having worked in both the restaurant sector, as sommelier in some of Madrid's better-known establishments, and specialist wine shops, which she has managed. She is currently general manager of ORO WINES, which professionals from the sector consider to be one of the most interesting wine projects to have seen the light of day in Spain over the last decade. She has also been awarded important prizes at wine-tasting championships, is a jury member at highly prestigious wine competitions and belongs to the tasting committees of some of the most acclaimed specialist publications.

Carmen Casas

EVA Award. Category: “Journalist or Commentator”

Spanish gastronomy of recent decades would be incomplete without the figure of Carmen Casas, one of the most respected critics in the sector and, fundamentally, a stylist of the written word and perceptive chronicler. A graduate in Philosophy and Arts, her work in this succulent field has taken shape in Catalonia's major tabloids, such as La Vanguardia and El Periódico de Catalunya. The author of numerous books, such as "Guía secreta de Catalunya” (Secret Guide to Catalonia) and “Damas guisan y ganan” (Ladies cook and win), a compendium study of Spain's female chefs prior to the boom of avant-garde, molecular cuisine, Carmen won the 1995 National Gastronomy Prize.

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Related information

EVA International Awards to Women in Gastronomy website