Rodrigo de la Calle
Rodrigo de la Calle: the Career of the Chef Behind El Invernadero
Son of a farmer, grandson of cooks. From Aranjuez to Ponzano, with gastrobotánica in between: fifty years told year by year.
Who Rodrigo de la Calle Is, and Why His Idea Names the Company
- 01Chef and owner of El Invernadero: not a commercial signature but the person who decides which species enters each week and how every course is built
- 02Created gastrobotánica around the year 2000 with the botanist Santiago Orts, and that word now names the company that owns the restaurant
- 03One MICHELIN Star since 2011, first in Aranjuez and from 2016 at El Invernadero, which received it barely a year after opening
- 04World's Best Vegetable Restaurant in 2024 and 2025, entering the «Untouchables» of the We're Smart Green Guide
- 05Four books published and advisory work that runs from Joël Robuchon to the business and first class menus of Air China
National Gastronomy Award from the Royal Spanish Academy of Gastronomy (2017) and Breakthrough Chef at Madrid Fusión (2009).
The company that owns El Invernadero is called GASTROBOTÁNICA, S.L.: few cooks can say their registered company name is an idea of their own.
El Invernadero de Rodrigo de la Calle
The full career, year by year
- 1976Son of a farmer, grandson of cooks
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Born in Madrid, raised between vegetable plots and stoves. That double inheritance explains a kitchen that starts in the field rather than on the menu.
- 1994Aranjuez catering school
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Trains in Aranjuez and then passes through the kitchens of Lhardy, Goizeko Kabi, Romesco and Lur Maitea.
- 2000Gastrobotánica, with Santiago Orts
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Arrives in Elche as executive chef of Huerto del Cura and meets the agronomist and botanist Santiago Orts. Together they create gastrobotánica: bringing species such as citrus caviar, Buddha's hand, ice plant and samphire into haute cuisine.
- 2003Mugaritz and Torreblanca's workshop
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Works with Andoni Luis Aduriz at Mugaritz and with the pastry chef Paco Torreblanca in his workshop.
- 2005El Poblet and Lasarte
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Passes through El Poblet, today Quique Dacosta, and completes his training with Martín Berasategui at Lasarte, whom he considers his teacher.
- 2007His first restaurant, in Aranjuez
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Opens a restaurant under his own name, with seasonal vegetable produce as the subject rather than the side.
- 2009Breakthrough Chef at Madrid Fusión
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The congress where he presents gastrobotánica to the international gastronomic community.
- 2010Chef of the Year and Chef L'Avenir
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Named Chef of the Year by the Madrid Chamber of Commerce and awarded the Chef L'Avenir by the International Academy of Gastronomy. Publishes his first book, «Gastrobotánica».
- 2011First MICHELIN Star
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On 24 November his Aranjuez restaurant receives the star, alongside a second Repsol Sun.
- 2012The «Green Revolution»
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Formulates the idea that has ordered his cooking ever since: the vegetable as the absolute protagonist of the menu.
- 2013Vegetable ferments
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Begins working with fermented vegetables, improving their texture and using the juices the fermentation produces.
- 2014Adviser to Joël Robuchon
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The chef with most MICHELIN Stars in the world brings him in as a green cuisine adviser, with seasonal trips to his Paris laboratory.
- 2015El Invernadero opens
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Opens in the Madrid sierra: four tables, no floor staff, the cooks themselves plating and serving every dish. That year he also begins researching fermented drinks and advising in Beijing.
- 2016The Vegetalia menu and the house star
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Creates the «Vegetalia» menu and opens his kitchen garden in Guadarrama. In November, barely a year old, El Invernadero receives its MICHELIN Star and its first Repsol Sun.
- 2017National Gastronomy Award
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Granted by the Royal Spanish Academy of Gastronomy, the same year he is named Grower of the Year in Tudela and enters the Washington Post's fifty most sustainable restaurants in the world. Publishes «Cocina Verde» and opens a second restaurant in Beijing.
- 2018From the sierra to Chamberí
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Presents the «Blue Cuisine» of phycocyanin at Madrid Fusión and in May moves El Invernadero to Calle de Ponzano 85, where it remains.
- 2019First consulting chef for Air China
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Designs the airline's business and first class menus and spends the summer season at the Hôtel Métropole in Monte Carlo. El Invernadero adds a second Repsol Sun.
- 2020MICHELIN Green Star
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The MICHELIN Guide distinguishes El Invernadero with its award for restaurants committed to sustainability.
- 2022«Verdupedia»
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Publishes his practical encyclopaedia of the vegetable world, with recipes for home cooking.
- 2024World's Best Vegetable Restaurant
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El Invernadero tops the We're Smart Green Guide Top 100, the leading international reference for plant cuisine.
- 2025Number one again: the «Untouchables»
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Repeats as World's Best Vegetable Restaurant at the We're Smart Awards in London and joins the group of the «Untouchables». Publishes «Escabeches» with Diana Díaz.
Questions about Rodrigo de la Calle
Who is Rodrigo de la Calle?
Chef and owner of El Invernadero, at Calle de Ponzano 85 in Madrid. Born in Madrid in 1976, trained at the Aranjuez catering school, and creator of gastrobotánica around the year 2000 alongside the botanist Santiago Orts. He has held One MICHELIN Star since 2011.
Is he actually in the kitchen, or just the name?
He is. He is the visible face and the author of everything served: the two lines of the menu, the construction of each course and the decision about which species comes in and when. There is no borrowed signature at El Invernadero.
What is gastrobotánica, and why did he create it?
It is the discipline that names a way of cooking in which the vegetable stops being a garnish and becomes the subject of the plate, studied variety by variety.
He coined it around the year 2000 with the botanist Santiago Orts at the Huerto del Cura nursery in Elche, and it now names the company that owns the restaurant.
What other projects does he run?
His personal brand lives at rodrigodelacalle.es. Barbecho Bar occupies weekday middays at the same Ponzano premises with an informal rice menu, and Paella Power is his counter at the Mercado de San Miguel. Each brand has its own website because each answers a different occasion.
Has he written books?
Four: «Gastrobotánica» (2010), «Cocina Verde» (2017), «Verdupedia» (2022), his practical encyclopaedia of the vegetable world with recipes for home, and «Escabeches» (2025), with Diana Díaz.
Can I watch him cook?
Yes, from the Chef's Table: a shared counter beside the kitchen for up to 10 diners, with space between bookings, where the chef cooks and plates in front of you, omakase style. You choose it when you book, in the «zone» field of the engine.
How do I book a table at his restaurant?
Through the booking engine on this site, choosing the menu first. There are only tasting menus, from €158 to €228 per person. Dinner runs Tuesday to Saturday and public holidays in two sittings, 19:00 and 21:30; lunch only on Saturdays and public holidays, at 14:00.
In haute cuisine the chef's name often works as a commercial signature: the brand sits at the top and the creative work is shared across a team. It is worth saying at the outset that this is not the case here, because it is the practical difference you notice at the table.
Rodrigo de la Calle is the chef and the owner of El Invernadero, and he is the one who decides the two lines of the menu, the construction of every course and which species comes in each week.
What you eat is what he has thought, not a studio version of his repertoire. That authorship is also why gastrobotánica cannot simply be borrowed: it is not a trend to adopt but a body of work with an author and a date.
His route explains that position better than any statement. Born in Madrid in 1976, son of a farmer and grandson of cooks, he trained at the Aranjuez catering school before passing through Mugaritz, El Poblet and Lasarte with Martín Berasategui, whom he considers his teacher.
In the middle of that, the year 2000 in Elche, where he met the agronomist and botanist Santiago Orts. Gastrobotánica came out of that conversation: bringing to haute cuisine vegetable species that never travel the usual market circuit.
Everything since has turned on the same subject. The «Green Revolution» of 2012, the vegetable ferments, the «Blue Cuisine» of phycocyanin, four books, and advisory work on green cuisine for Joël Robuchon and for Air China.
And El Invernadero, which opened in 2015 in the Madrid sierra with four tables and no floor staff — the cooks plated and served themselves — and which moved in 2018 to Calle de Ponzano 85, where it remains.
Rodrigo de la Calle, the cook who put the vegetable at the centre
His name has been attached to Spanish plant cuisine for more than twenty years, and almost always next to a word he invented himself. The two things are worth separating.
The chef, and what it means that he owns the place
Rodrigo de la Calle is chef and owner of El Invernadero, at Calle de Ponzano 85 in Madrid. He is not a name licensed to a project: he decides the two lines of the menu, the construction of every course and which species comes in each week. In a field where creative work is often shared across a team and the chef's name works as a brand, that difference shows up at the table.
Gastrobotánica has an author and a date
He coined it around the year 2000 with the agronomist and botanist Santiago Orts, at the Huerto del Cura nursery in Elche, to name the work of bringing to haute cuisine vegetable species outside the usual circuit: citrus caviar, Buddha's hand, ice plant, samphire. That word now names the company that owns the restaurant, GASTROBOTÁNICA, S.L.
Seguir leyendoFrom Aranjuez to Ponzano · Sitting at his table
From Aranjuez to Ponzano
The full career is above, year by year. These are the three moments that order it.
2011: the first MICHELIN Star
On 24 November his restaurant in Aranjuez receives the star, together with a second Repsol Sun. It is the recognition that arrives after a decade working on the same subject.
2015 and 2018: El Invernadero opens, then moves
It opens in the Madrid sierra with four tables and no floor staff: the cooks plated and served themselves. In 2016, barely a year old, it receives its MICHELIN Star and its first Repsol Sun. In May 2018 it moves to Ponzano 85, where it remains.
2024 and 2025: number one in the world
El Invernadero tops the We're Smart Green Guide Top 100 in 2024 and holds first place again in 2025, which brings entry to the group of the «Untouchables». It is the only one of his distinctions that is a numbered ranking.
Sitting at his table
Rodrigo de la Calle's restaurant serves tasting menus only, with no à la carte.
What is served
Two lines: Vegetalia, pure plant cuisine served 100% plant-based as standard, and Gastrobotánica, the omnivore line with fish and meat inside the menu. More than fifteen courses each, rebuilt every week around the season. From €158 to €228 per person.
Watching him cook
The Chef's Table is a counter beside the kitchen for up to ten diners, with space between bookings, where the chef cooks and plates in front of you. You choose it when you book, in the «zone» field of the engine.
