The event took place on February 24, 2026 at the Governor's House on the Aranjuez Campus, where the prestigious Chef Jesús Sánchez, Restaurant Amós gazeboHe officially accepted the role of godfather to the first graduating class of the Bachelor's Degree in Gastronomy. The event was organized by the degree program's coordination team (Coordinator Alicia Orea Giner and Vice-Coordinator Natalia Casado Navas) in collaboration with the MaGIC (Madrid Gastronomic International Center), and was attended by various academic authorities, including Julio Ramiro Bargueño (Vice-Rector for Students, Employability, and Entrepreneurship), Carlos Goicoechea García (Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences), Antonio Montero Navarro (Vice-Dean for Academic Affairs, Faculty, and Curricula of the Faculty of Economics and Business), Mónica Santos Cebrián (Vice-Dean for Quality of the Faculty of Economics and Business), and Isabel Sierra Alonso (Deputy Director of Academic Affairs and Quality of the Higher School of Experimental Sciences and Technology). Representatives from the Aranjuez City Council, with which the university maintains a close collaboration, were also present.
During the event, the chef shared his culinary vision and commitment to sustainable cuisine with the students. He also presented his restaurant project, a benchmark of Spanish haute cuisine located in Villaverde de Pontones, a small town in Cantabria, which has received numerous awards. three Michelin stars, one Michelin Green Star and three Repsol SunsThe meeting focused on innovation, sustainability, and gastronomic regeneration—pillars that define the chef's career and directly connect with the sector's current challenges. The undergraduate students also had the opportunity to conduct an interactive interview with the chef, who offered words of encouragement and a sense of responsibility to the new culinary professionals.
Amos's Gazebo: the success of a perfect tandem.
Although Jesús Sánchez is the most visible face of Cenador de Amós, the chef wanted to emphasize that the true driving force behind the project's success is the partnership he forms with his wife, Marián Martínez Pereda, the restaurant's director and co-owner. Together, they represent an inspiring example of entrepreneurship in the culinary sector.
More than three decades ago, they decided to embark on an ambitious project together, fraught with uncertainty, but driven by a passion for gastronomy and the desire to create their own culinary identity. Since then, they have never stopped working, learning, and evolving, establishing Cenador de Amós as one of the most influential restaurants in Spain. Their journey demonstrates that the combination of talent, perseverance, and a long-term vision can transform a dream into an international benchmark.
Both have emphasized that reaching the top—including obtaining and maintaining several Michelin stars—has been the result of constant work, effort, and shared dedication. Sánchez also stressed that running a restaurant of this caliber involves much more than cooking: it requires mastering aspects of financial management, leadership, organization, and business acumen, as well as knowledge of food chemistry and technology. These aspects, he noted, are essential for future professionals to understand gastronomy as a comprehensive and multidisciplinary field.
A sponsorship to inspire the future.
The event not only served to inaugurate the academic path of the first graduating class of the Bachelor's Degree in Gastronomybut also to position gastronomy as a space where innovation, responsibility y sensitivity towards the environment must go hand in hand.
With this sponsorship, the URJC It reinforces its commitment to offering gastronomic training that integrates creativity, innovation, sustainability and management, preparing its students to face a global, demanding and constantly transforming sector.