Born in Fuente Álamo (Murcia, 1987), chef María Gómez trained at the Basque Culinary Center and at the Karlos Arguiñano school, and forged her culinary style under the guidance of chefs such as Juan Mari Arzak and Ferran Adrià. The countryside of Cartagena and the Mediterranean Sea are the leitmotif of her restaurant Magoga. The restaurant opened in 2014 and she runs it with her husband Adrián de Marcos, the maître d' of the restaurant. In the kitchen, María draws on the regional recipe book and pantry to create cuisine that stands out for its freshness, modernity and the right balance between the avant-garde and the traditional, and between the vegetable garden and the sea that shape Murcia's landscape.   

As a result, we can see an obsession with the use of local ingredients in her dishes, which are full of flavour and aesthetic beauty, and a special sensitivity that led her to be a finalist for the Best New Chef Award 2019. The same year, Magoga was awarded its first Repsol Sun and its first Michelin star, becoming only the second restaurant in the Region of Murcia to be honoured by the French guide after Cabaña Buenavista.