SINGAPORE, Feb. 18 (UPI) -- Santi Santamaria, a celebrated and controversial Catalan chef, died suddenly this week Singapore. He was 53.
Santamaria died of a suspected heart attack Wednesday while visiting his restaurant at the Marina Bay Sands Resort, The Independent of London reported.
He was with a group of journalists at the restaurant.
One of them, Mikel Zeberio, told The Straits Times: 'It was very sudden. I gave him a kiss [of greeting] and 3 minutes later he had collapsed and I was holding him in my arms.'
Santamaria was the first Catalan chef to win three stars from Michelin for his Barcelona, Spain, restaurant, Can Fabes, which he founded in a rural farmhouse in 1981. By the time of his death, he had two restaurants in Madrid, two in Barcelona, one in Toledo, Spain, and one in Dubai.
Santamaria carried on a public rivalry with fellow Catalan chef Ferran Adria.
"Some chefs offer a media spectacle and are not concerned about healthful eating," Santamaria said. "Ferran and I have an ethical and conceptual divorce over what we put on the plate."
He denounced "the use of chemical substances" in cooking as "a public health risk" and was a prominent advocate of "ethical sourcing" and using the produce of organic farming and traditional fishing.
