Shawn McClain, Executive chef, Sage (Aria)

“I’ve had the pleasure of doing two amazing trips to Spain through their consulate. To be able to eat at the most famous restaurant probably in the world, El Bulli, in ’97 and ’07, I really go to see the transformation from what I feel like was the beginning of [Ferran Adria’s] movement in ’97 and his theories and all that to ’07 when it was a go, it was full-blown. It was amazing. You know you’re in the same industry sometimes, but the thought, the execution, everything that goes into something like that is really inspiring. And there are only a few people in the world that can do something like that. … The fact that I got to go there, and Mugaritz as well, it’s times like that when you really appreciate this industry and think, ‘How lucky I am to be sitting here with a group of my peers and eating at Mugaritz and having wines and sitting in the garden and talking to the chef?’”