Omar Páez

Biography

Omar Páez is chef and owner of Bestia Marina, a restaurant in Garachico, Tenerife, where he has developed a cuisine centred on seafood and cooking over the grill. His work draws on a family recipe book dating from 1912, linked to his great-grandmother and grandmother, which he uses as a starting point for developing his own culinary approach.
At Bestia Marina, fire plays a central role. Fish, seafood and other ingredients are cooked over embers using different types of wood, whose aromas become part of the dishes. The cuisine also relies on seasonal and market produce, maintaining close relationships with suppliers and producers in the surrounding area.
Páez also explores the preservation and transformation of seafood through preparations such as preserves, curing, smoking and fish charcuterie. From Garachico, his project brings together family memory, local produce and fire-based techniques to develop a cuisine closely connected to the territory and the sea of the Canary Islands.