Shortly after Maria Marte arrived in Spain from the Dominican Republic in 2003 she started working as a dishwasher at Madrid's Michelin-starred Club Allard restaurant - and just a decade later she has taken over as chef.

Defying her doubters, Marte preserved the restaurant's two Michelin stars, making her the only female chef in the Spanish capital of a two-star restaurant. Her trajectory has been compared to a fairy tale, a term she rejects. "There is a lot of struggle behind this, a lot of work. It is no tale," she says.

Like other immigrants, Marte says she left Jarabacoa, a tropical town in the mountains of the Dominican Republic, and boarded a plane "looking for a visa for a dream", she says citing a song by Dominican singer Juan Luis Guerra.