Why The Summit?

Over the past five years, the audiovisual industry, especially digital platforms, has shown a growing fascination for gastronomy, particularly for haute cuisine chefs. Projects like Chef's Table (Netflix), The Taste (CNN), A Chef's Life (PBS) and Nourish (Apple TV+) have proved that a globalised audience wants more than food — they want personal stories of commitment, purpose and identity, told through the lens of chefs working at the highest level.

The Summit differs from other documentaries because it is not a complacent portrait. Our protagonist is not only chasing technical excellence. Mario embodies the emotional complexity of a man who inherited a family crisis, turned it into an empire, and now asks himself whether that is enough.

The Sandoval saga is identified with Madrid's entrepreneurial spirit, paired with a special depth in a city that carries gastronomy as its signature around the world. With a past and future deeply rooted in Madrid (Humanes, Chamberí and the Sierra de Guadarrama), the context could not better reflect the feeling of a family business and a city (Madrid, an international gastronomic reference) devoted to making those who visit happier.

Coque (Chamberí) is one of the great benchmarks of haute cuisine in Madrid. Its proposal combines culinary avant-garde with a deep root in Madrilenian and Castilian tradition. Located in the heart of the city, Coque has become a gastronomic experience that is, in essence, a tribute to the identity, history and international projection of the capital.

THE SUMMIT is not just a series about a chef. As The Last Dance (ESPN/Netflix) proved, when the stage is strong enough and the character particularly honest, genre disappears. What remains is something more valuable and more universal: the story of someone who has given everything and wonders, on the verge of reaching the summit, whether it was worth it. The kitchen is the battlefield. Identity crisis, legacy and the price of success are the real drama.

Most of the team coincided on Hope! We Are in Time. Mario Sandoval did not come to it from outside: watching that work pushed him to make fundamental decisions that were already in his mind about his legacy, both in business and in the kitchen. Moving toward a regenerative world, returning to origins. THE SUMMIT is born of that impact — more personal, more exposed, more uncomfortable; the honest account of a transformation already underway. The team is not a stranger, trust already exists, and the protagonist has placed in them something more than his image: they are his natural home for THE SUMMIT to find its best version.