Spanish pastry chef, now at the helm of Brix in Dubai, Carmen Rueda Hernandez turns 20 years of travel into multi-sensory sweet tastings: in 2025 she was awarded the title of MENA's Best Pastry Chef thanks to menus that travel the Silk Road amid novel aromas and non-alcoholic pairing.
Born in a rural village in Salamanca, she left Spain in 2004 after studying at the Culinary and Tourism Institute in Madrid; in Barcelona, where an internship introduced her to chocolate, she realized she would never return to savory cuisine. The next step is Olivier Bajard's workshop in France, a springboard to the last season of El Bulli in 2011, an experience that teaches her to consider any idea possible as long as it is well thought out.
The creative method learned from Ferran Adrià is refined in Bray with Heston Blumenthal: two stints at The Fat Duck bakery (2011-2017) show her the importance of sensory storytelling. This is followed by stops with Janice Wong in Singapore and projects in Cape Town, Warsaw and Riyadh, where she integrates fermentations, marine botanicals and neuroscientific readings of taste.
In 2021 she settled in Dubai: at Brix's ten-seat counter, she orchestrates two menus - The Silk Road and The Seasons - in which saffron meringues and caviar evoke Persia, while cherry and ginger ice creams on truffles celebrate European autumn. Each dish dialogues with kombucha, infusions or kefir designed to amplify textures and flavor profiles.
Her philosophy combines classical rigor with a search for borderline ingredients such as caramelized seaweed, celery or black garlic. “Pastry evolves if it speaks the language of savory cuisine,” she explains, advising young people to analyze every detail in order to grow.
In February 2025, she was crowned best pastry chef in the Middle East-North Africa region by the 50 Best, an award that recognizes the ability to concentrate experience gathered in eight countries into sixty minutes. In addition to creating desserts, she leads a brigade divided between central lab and satellite kitchens, teaches pairing nou2011alcol, and supports 50 Best scholarships for aspiring Middle Eastern pastry chefs.
