Echaurren, a fourth-generation family hotel-restaurant at Ezcaray, a ski resort in northern Spain's Rioja region, is unique. It has two separate dining rooms, two chefs and two distinct styles of cooking.
Marisa Sanchez, a past winner of the best Spanish chef National Gastronomy Award, cooks traditional Basque-inspired food. Her 34-year-old son Francis Paniego, winner of the Porcelanas Bidasoa prize for best young chef aged under 35, produces the modern cuisine that has had such an influence on current cooking trends.
After leaving school, he worked in some of Madrid's top restaurants and trained at the capital's catering college. While he was there, his brother Luis, also a chef, died suddenly and he returned to help his mother at Echaurren. He stayed there for two years before returning to Madrid to finish studying.
After completing his studies, he worked for two Basque stars - Pedro Subijana and Juan-Mari Arzak - and in Catalonia for Ferran Adrià. He crossed the border to cook for Firman Arrambide at France's two-Michelin-starred Pyrenées at St-Jean-Pied-de-Port.
Still only 24, Perego moved back home, again working alongside his mother. In 1994, though, they decided to split the restaurant into two parts to avoid the confusion of having two competing styles of cooking on the same menu.
"Now," Perego says, "customers can enjoy Marisa Sanchez's food at lunchtime and mine for dinner."