Ignacio — Founder & Chef
Born and Raised in Madrid
Ignacio grew up in Madrid in a household where food was never just fuel — it was ceremony. Weekends meant long lunches that stretched into the afternoon, the kitchen always smelling of sofrito, saffron, and olive oil. Paella was not a dish you ordered at a restaurant. It was something you watched being made, debated, and shared.
That upbringing shaped everything about how Tapas Madriz operates today. The standard Ignacio holds himself to is not a professional one — it is a personal one. The paella at your event should taste like the paella he grew up eating. No shortcuts, no substitutes, no compromise on what goes in the pan.
When Ignacio moved to Melbourne, he found a city that loves good food and loves to gather — but was missing the kind of Spanish dining experience he grew up with. Not restaurant Spanish. Not fusion. The real thing, cooked live, served with warmth, in your own home or venue.
Tapas Madriz was born from that gap — and from a deep belief that the best meals happen when the cooking is part of the occasion.
Since launching in 2022, Tapas Madriz has cooked live at hundreds of events across Melbourne — backyard birthdays in Brighton, corporate functions in the CBD, intimate dinners in Toorak, weddings across the Mornington Peninsula. The pan changes size, the guest list changes, but the standard never does: everything cooked from scratch, on-site, in front of the people eating it.
Ignacio still does every quote himself, still plans every menu around the specific event in front of him, and still shows up to cook personally rather than send a crew. For a city that's grown to expect exactly that level of care from its caterers, it's become one of the reasons people book Tapas Madriz for the events that matter most to them.