Paco Roncero is the Spanish chef-patron of Paco Roncero Restaurante in Madrid, a two-Michelin-star restaurant on the rooftop of the 19th-century Casino de Madrid on Calle Alcalá. Born in Madrid in 1969, Roncero trained at the city’s Casa de Campo hospitality school, spent his formative years at Zalacaín, and in 1991 joined La Terraza del Casino, the restaurant he has now run for more than three decades. He became executive chef in 2000 and the restaurant was renamed Paco Roncero Restaurante in 2019.
The restaurant holds two Michelin stars and three Repsol Suns and was retained in the Michelin Guide Spain and Andorra 2026 announced in November 2025. Roncero is a close collaborator of Ferran Adrià, was named Spanish National Gastronomy Award winner in 2006, and runs Paco Roncero Workshop, an immersive multisensory dining laboratory. He is also a Spanish TV personality and a long-standing chef in the Grupo Paco Roncero international portfolio across Madrid, Shanghai, Bogotá and Ibiza.
TL;DR
- Spanish chef born 1969 in Madrid, Spain
- Chef-owner of Paco Roncero Restaurante (formerly La Terraza del Casino) atop Casino de Madrid
- Two Michelin stars and three Repsol Suns, retained in Michelin Guide Spain 2026
- National Gastronomy Award 2006; long-time collaborator of Ferran Adrià
- Founder of Paco Roncero Workshop multisensory dining laboratory
Paco Roncero key facts
| Born | 1969, Madrid, Spain |
| Nationality | Spanish |
| Main restaurant | Paco Roncero Restaurante, Calle Alcalá 15, Casino de Madrid, Madrid (opened 1991 as La Terraza del Casino; renamed 2019) |
| Michelin stars | Two at Paco Roncero since 2006, retained 2026 |
| Style | Avant-garde Spanish rooted in Madrid tradition; olive oil as central ingredient |
| Notable awards | Spanish National Gastronomy Award 2006; three Repsol Suns; Best Chef Awards three-knife status |
| Other ventures | Paco Roncero Workshop (Madrid); Sublimotion (Ibiza); Estado Puro (Madrid); international projects in Shanghai and Bogotá |
Early life and training of Paco Roncero
Francisco “Paco” Roncero was born in Madrid in 1969 and has lived in the city his entire career. He trained at the Casa de Campo hospitality school in Madrid, one of the classical Spanish culinary training institutions of the 1980s, and did his first professional stage at the legendary Zalacaín restaurant under chef Benjamín Urdiain. Zalacaín was one of the most important Spanish fine-dining rooms of the period and shaped his understanding of classical technique, service and Madrid haute cuisine.
In 1991 he joined La Terraza del Casino, the restaurant on the rooftop of the 19th-century Casino de Madrid building on Calle Alcalá. The Casino, designed by José López Sallaberry and completed in 1910, is itself a heritage building in the centre of Madrid, minutes from the Puerta del Sol. La Terraza had been a fine-dining address since 1988. Roncero rose through the kitchen across the 1990s, becoming head chef and, in 2000, executive chef and creative director of the restaurant.
The formative influence on his mature style has been Ferran Adrià. Roncero collaborated closely with Adrià and the elBulli team for years, and La Terraza del Casino became known in the 2000s as the Madrid outpost of post-elBulli thinking: spherification, foams, edible papers, and deconstructed classical Spanish dishes applied to a metropolitan Madrid audience. Adrià has served publicly as advisor to the restaurant at various points in its history.
Paco Roncero career timeline
- 1969: Born in Madrid, Spain
- Late 1980s: Trains at the Casa de Campo hospitality school in Madrid
- Late 1980s-early 1990s: First stages at Zalacaín under Benjamín Urdiain
- 1991: Joins La Terraza del Casino at Casino de Madrid
- 2000: Becomes executive chef and creative director of La Terraza del Casino
- 2005: La Terraza del Casino earns its first Michelin star
- 2006: Awarded the Spanish National Gastronomy Award for best chef
- Late 2000s: La Terraza del Casino earns its second Michelin star
- 2012: Opens Estado Puro, a tapas restaurant in central Madrid
- 2014: Co-founds Sublimotion, a multisensory immersive dining experience at Hard Rock Hotel Ibiza, with his creative team
- 2015: Opens Paco Roncero Workshop, a research-and-development laboratory in Madrid
- 2017-2020: Opens international projects in Shanghai, Bogotá and other cities
- 2019: La Terraza del Casino renamed Paco Roncero Restaurante
- 2021: Joins MasterChef Celebrity Spain as judge
- 2025-2026: Paco Roncero retains two Michelin stars in the Michelin Guide Spain and Andorra 2026 (announced November 2025)
Paco Roncero signature style: Madrid tradition with avant-garde technique
Roncero’s menu architecture is organised around the city of Madrid itself. He treats Madrid’s bar culture, traditional breakfast dishes, bocadillos, cocido and snack-bar references as source material for a fine-dining tasting menu. The restaurant currently offers three menus: Esencia (15 courses, Thursday and Friday lunch only), Madrid (23 courses) and Gran Madrid (25 courses). Each takes diners through a reinterpreted journey of the Madrid culinary canon.
Olive oil is his most frequently cited obsession. He has published books on olive oil and has spent years developing techniques for incorporating it at every stage of a meal: as a texture, as a temperature carrier, as a desiccant, as a dessert element. He runs courses on olive oil-based cooking and has been an ambassador for Spanish olive oil internationally.
The Paco Roncero Workshop, opened in 2015, is a separate multisensory space where smaller groups experience dishes synchronised with music, lighting, projection, temperature and aroma. It is the natural continuation of Sublimotion, the multisensory restaurant he co-created at the Hard Rock Hotel Ibiza in 2014, which has been described as one of the world’s most expensive tasting menus and a reference project for immersive dining.
Notable dishes at Paco Roncero Restaurante
Several Paco Roncero dishes have become reference points in contemporary Madrid fine dining. The Filipino of foie gras with white chocolate, named after the traditional Spanish breakfast pastry dipped in chocolate, is the restaurant’s most recognisable opening snack. His reinterpretation of the Madrid calamari sandwich reduces the classic bocadillo de calamares to its essential flavours on a single bite. The truffle tart and the olive tree presentation dish are two of the visual signatures. Oxtail Wellington applies the classical French technique to the Madrid stew tradition. And the dessert courses (the Violeta, referencing traditional Madrid violet candies, and the beetroot and black garlic combination) close each tasting menu in the restaurant’s unusually savoury dessert register.
Paco Roncero awards and recognition
- 2005: First Michelin star at La Terraza del Casino
- 2006: Spanish National Gastronomy Award (Best Chef)
- Late 2000s: Second Michelin star at La Terraza del Casino
- Three Repsol Suns at Paco Roncero Restaurante
- Best Chef Awards three-knife status (one of only 97 chefs worldwide)
- La Liste score of 95 points for 2025 and 2026 editions
- 2026: Two Michelin stars retained in the Michelin Guide Spain and Andorra 2026
Paco Roncero impact on Madrid gastronomy
Roncero’s most concrete contribution is the translation of post-elBulli avant-garde technique into a specifically Madrid idiom. When he took over La Terraza del Casino in 2000, Madrid was not yet the fine-dining capital it has become. DiverXO, Coque, Smoked Room, Deessa and Ramón Freixa Atelier came later. Roncero’s consistent two-star presence through the 2000s and 2010s was one of the rooms that established Madrid as a serious fine-dining destination comparable to Barcelona and San Sebastián.
The second contribution is the multisensory dining format. The Paco Roncero Workshop and Sublimotion together helped create the category that Rasmus Munk at Alchemist in Copenhagen, Grant Achatz at Alinea in Chicago and others have since developed in their own ways: a dining room that treats food as one component of a broader sensory argument. His Ibiza-based Sublimotion was one of the first commercially successful immersive tasting-menu experiences.
Within the current Madrid generation he sits alongside Dabiz Muñoz at DiverXO (three Michelin stars) and Quique Dacosta, whose Deessa at the Mandarin Oriental Ritz also holds two stars. The post-elBulli lineage also connects him to Albert Adrià at Enigma in Barcelona, whose 2025 promotion to two stars is part of the same avant-garde Spanish tradition Roncero helped build in Madrid.
Paco Roncero FAQ
How many Michelin stars does Paco Roncero Restaurante have?
Two Michelin stars, retained in the Michelin Guide Spain and Andorra 2026 announced in November 2025. The restaurant earned its first Michelin star in 2005 and its second in the late 2000s, and has held both stars consistently since.
Where is Paco Roncero Restaurante?
On the top floor of the Casino de Madrid, a 19th-century heritage building at Calle Alcalá 15 in central Madrid, minutes from the Puerta del Sol. The restaurant has a rooftop terrace with views of the Madrid skyline and an interior designed by Jaime Hayón and Julio Guixeres.
Was the restaurant previously called La Terraza del Casino?
Yes. The restaurant opened as La Terraza del Casino in 1988, Paco Roncero joined in 1991 and became executive chef in 2000. In 2019 it was renamed Paco Roncero Restaurante as part of an agreement between the chef and Minor Hotels Europe and Americas, which operates the NH Collection Madrid Palacio de Tepa hotel connected to the Casino.
What is Paco Roncero Workshop?
A private multisensory dining laboratory Roncero opened in Madrid in 2015. Small groups experience a tasting menu synchronised with music, lighting, projection, aroma and temperature. It is a continuation of the research he did for Sublimotion at the Hard Rock Hotel Ibiza (opened 2014).
Did Paco Roncero work with Ferran Adrià?
Yes. Roncero has been a long-time collaborator of Ferran Adrià, who has served as an advisor to the restaurant at various points. Roncero is part of the post-elBulli generation of Spanish chefs who adapted the techniques developed at Roses into their own regional contexts.
What is next for Paco Roncero
Following the November 2025 retention of two Michelin stars in the 2026 Spain and Andorra guide, Roncero has signalled that the immediate focus remains on the Madrid flagship and the Paco Roncero Workshop. He continues to operate international projects in Shanghai and Bogotá, and maintains the Sublimotion Ibiza project during the summer season. His public Instagram (@pacoroncero) is the best source for current menu updates and appearances.
