José Pizarro has lived in the UK for 15 years and in that time has worked at some of London's most prestigious Spanish restaurants including Eyre Brothers, Brindisa and Gaudi. In May 2011 he opened his first solo venture – José – his proudest moment yet. Later that year he opened Pizarro, a few yards away from José.
José was planning to become a dental technician in Spain but realised his love of food was bigger than his love of dentistry and completed one year of catering school in Cáceres before working in a restaurant local to his home town. In 1997 Pizarro moved to Madrid to the award-winning Meson de Doña Filo where he cooked nueva cocina and began his love affair with fresh, brightly flavoured dishes.
José has appeared on BBC1's Saturday Kitchen many times with more appearances planned for this year. In 2014 he also took part in Ch4's What's Cooking?, Weekend Kitchen with Waitrose and he also filmed a Spanish special for the newly launched Food Network series, The Big Eat. José has also previously been part of UKTV Food's Market Kitchen, Channel 4's Sunday Brunch and Rick Stein's Christmas on BBC1.
