We are currently accepting applications for our II Rising Stars Sammic Scholarship. The winner will receive a paid 3-month stage in Xarma restaurant of San Sebastián.

Xarma is a restaurant specializing in modern, product-driven Basque cuisine, created under the young chefs Xabier Díez and Aizpea Oihaneder. Located in San Sebastián, Xarma (pronounced SHAR-ma) was founded in 2008 by the two chefs, who met while cooking at Arzak.

Their cuisine is fresh, dynamic, natural and based on seasonal product. Using the market as their guide, they feature an everchanging menu for their 35-seat restaurant that embraces experimentation. They offer plates that taste both new and familiar, such as their truffled yogurt, served in the traditional yogurt glass, with an Idiazabal cheese bonbon buried inside. “Chefs end up working with what they have,” says Oihaneder.

For the kitchen at Xarma, this means local vegetables, the freshest seafood, and knowledge accumulated from sojourns at several of the region’s best restaurants. And passion: “Whoever wants to be at Xarma has to be in love with cooking,” Díez says. The small yet passionate team is part of the restaurant’s secret.

Besides the two years spent in the kitchen at Arzak, Díez and Oihaneder have worked in France, under Michel Bras; Martín Berasategui, the three-star restaurant in San Sebastián, and other Spanish restaurants decked with Michelin stars, such as the Restaurante del Monasterio de Rocamador.

Xarma means ‘charm’ in Basque, and the restaurant has the critics under its spell. They were recently awarded a second ‘sun’ from the famed Guia Repsol, and it is widely believed that a Michelin star can’t be far behind.