Gastronomy: territorial identity and best hours for the new batch of Spanish chefs

They are in charge of generally small restaurants, with few staff, they defend the culinary identity of their territories and want to take a further step in the dignity of the hospitality industry by reducing their hours. It is the new batch of “emerging and advanced chefs” that the Gourmets Hall, in Madrid, brought together this Tuesday.

Five decades ago these Round Tables at the Gourmets Hall were the germ of the first great culinary revolution in Spain, the New Basque Cuisine, and in this edition they have brought together young people who set the new rhythms of Spanish gastronomy.

Like Alejandro Serrano, born in 1996, who in 2019 opened the Alejandro restaurant in Miranda de Ebro (Burgos). “When they call you promise it gives vertigo, but we are the future of a new generation of chefs, the ones who have to put a point and followed in the history of our gastronomy“, It has been recognized.

María Martínez bets in Enekorri (Pamplona) for a kitchen that looks more to tradition than to foams, although it does use new techniques to give pots and sauces current airs, and the “muse” of Jorge Asenjo and Rebeca Barainca in Galerna (San Sebastián), is “giving voice to the primary sector” of the Basque Country, recovering popular dishes such as limpet soup and defending the txakolí.

Dromo is in Badajoz and Juanma Salgado has as a “great challenge” that his guests “know that they are eating in Extremadura”, but he rejects that he only has to cook Iberian pork: “It could be an oyster with ham sauce”, while Lucía Freitas , with a Michelin star in A Tafona, the Lume restaurant and about to open another one dedicated to the grill and the Galician masses, is a born defender of the product of its land and the Atlantic diet.

“When someone sits at my table I want them to feel with their eyes closed that they are eating in Galicia, because we have reached a point of globalization with which we have lost the north,” he defended.

The culinary identity of La Mancha, based on cereal, is also the watchword of the “panarra-cook” Jesús Monedero in Palio (Ocaña, Toledo), while David Oliva defends popular Andalusian cuisine at Back Tapas in Marbella (Málaga).

The fetish products of David López Carreño are algae, mushrooms, turmas and offal and he has opted for the specialization in Local de Ensayo, in Puente Tocinos (Murcia). He has just published a book dedicated precisely to the earth criadillas.

They are the culinary lines of a generation that has also proposed to improve hospitality hours so that their staff can reconcile. Although that is costing them a problem with the clientele: “80% of the diner is receptive, but with the rest you have to fight,” summarized José Antonio Sánchez, from Villa Antonia and Els Vents, in San Juan (Alicante).

“There are very cruel clients who do not understand this profession, I would like cooks to join in and in ten years this would have changed. If you can go to dinner at 8:00 p.m. instead of at 10:30 p.m., why not? ”, Added Begoña Fraire, from Étimo (Madrid).

The youngest, those who have not reached their thirties or have just passed it, have also trusted that in a few years their working hours can be reduced and cooks who work 12 or 14 hours a day will become a myth.

“As microentrepreneurs, the first great revolution of ours will be that of restricting the opening of restaurants,” added Juanma Salgado.

There are those who value appearing in gastronomic guides and chase Michelin stars and Repsol soles and those who do not care, generally enjoy more in popular cuisine restaurants than in those of their haute cuisine “parents”, and sustainability is part of its culinary DNA.

Concern for the environment was also highlighted in the XChef by Cervezas 1906 Challenge contest, in which twelve chefs had to convince the jury not only of their creativity, but of their good environmental practices.

Carles Ramon, from Besta (Barcelona) has won with a pancake stuffed with seaweed and red shrimp and napada with Béarnaise sauce 1906. His restaurant focuses on fish and seafood and his commitment to these products, as he explained, is “to absolutely respect the seasons ”Or watch that they have not been captured with arts that are harmful to their environment.

However, he lamented, the diner has “nothing assumed” that he should know what he eats so as not to spoil the planet more, although he trusts that the growing awareness of the cooks will serve to “educate from the restaurant menus.”

In second place, Javier Linares, from Mundua (Valencia), and Miguel Fernández de Morgana (Madrid) in third place.