The restaurants Iván Cerdeño (Toledo) and El Rincón de Juan Carlos, by the Padrón brothers in Tenerife, they have collected this Monday in San Sebastian his third sun, the highest distinction in the Repsol Guide, that this 2022 also grants twelve new second suns and distributes its first to 83, a section in which young talent stands out.
Catalonia is the most benefited region this year, with twelve restaurants that debut one and two soles, followed by the communities of Madrid and Valencia, which tie with 10 distinguished ones, while the Basque Country adds nine. In total, 97 soles have been distributed, widely distributed throughout the national geography, a sign of great gastronomic dynamism that is covid-proof.
All this in an edition that has been considered the “gastronomic renaissance”, after the hotel industry suffered the economic ravages of the pandemic, and in which the focus has been placed on projects undertaken by young people, many of whom are committed to recovering territorial identity and culinary memory in their dishes, in addition to those where sustainability connects with a diner increasingly concerned about the environment.
At a gala held this Monday at the Victoria Eugenia Theater in DonostiaIván Cerdeño has collected his third Repsol sun for the restaurant that bears his name in the historic Cigarral del Ángel de Toledo for a kitchen “conceptually brilliant, elegant in plating, precise and subtle in every detail”, which shines in vegetables and game and has the perfect support of the room led by his wife, Anikka García Escudero.
The brothers Juan Carlos and Jonathan Padrón get together for El Rincón de Juan Carlos (Adeje, Santa Cruz de Tenerife) a third sun that tastes of the sea, embodied in elaborations “without disguise, of subtle technique” in which “the product and the essence of the dish are respected”, in the opinion of a team of 53 inspectors which has made more than a thousand visits to prepare the Repsol Guide 2022.
As for the two suns, they travel to Arrea! (Campezo, Álava), where Edorta Lamo takes an emotional and gastronomic journey through the cuisine of hunger and poaching that marked her environment; to Bodega Katxiña, based on the traditional grill from Orio (Guipúzcoa) and run by the brothers Iñaki and Izaskun Zendoia, and to Cancook (Zaragoza), with Ramcés González conferring textures and temperatures on the Aragonese product.
Sevillian and ex-Bulli Rafa Zafra wins two soles for Estimar (Madrid) and one for Jondal (Ibiza), proposals that seek to enhance the marine product and bring it into the 21st century; the couple formed by Carolina Sánchez and Iñaki Murua achieved the second for Ikaro (Logroño) for dishes that combine her Ecuadorian roots with his Basque ones, and Dani Carnero has picked it up for Kaleja (Málaga), where stews, stocks and tradition acquire a portentous modernity.
The refinement it gives to the Navarrese vegetables Leandro Gil at The Library (Pamplona), the Mediterranean cuisine of Nazario Cano in Odiseo (Churra, Murcia), the renewed Leonese flavors of Juanjo Losada in Pablo (León), the marine menus of Raúl Resino in the restaurant of the same name in Benicarló (Castellón), the maturing of fish slaughtered using the Japanese ‘ike jime’ bleeding technique from Borja Susilla in Tula (Jávea, Alicante) and the healthy dishes from Xavier Pellicer in Barcelona complete this section.
Among the 83 restaurants opening their first sun, the Repsol Guide highlights “the drive of Generation Z”, twentysomethings who lead interesting proposals turning small towns into places of pilgrimage for lovers of good food such as Straws Maite in Casas Ibáñez (Albacete), Alejandro Serrano in Miranda de Ebro (Burgos) or Fuentelgato in Huerta del Marquesado (Cuenca).
With them, highlights the Repsol Guide, “the average age of sunny chefs drops considerably.” The youngest to achieve this 2022 a sun is Alejandro Paz (Fuentelgato), with 23 years.
Kabo (Pamplona), Éter (Madrid) or Ama (Tolosa, Guipúzcoa) are also linked here, the latter being an example as well as another current that the Repsol Guide wants to promote: that of territorial identity; in this case, its creators, Javier Rivero and Gorka Rico, are considered a “showcase” of the work of the producers around them.
Among those who debut a sun, family projects such as Damasqueros (Granada), Mas Marroch (Girona), AQ (Tarragona), Quimbaya (Madrid), Baeza&Rufete (Alicante), Casa Maruka (Baleares) or Gotzon (Vizcaya) also stand out.
The concern to stop environmental deterioration through restaurants has had its continuity with the delivery of sustainable soles, an award that premiered in 2021 and that this year has been collected by Coque (Madrid), Monastrell (Alicante), Raíces (Talavera de la Reina, Toledo) and Kofradia (Donostia).
At the ceremony, organized for the fourth consecutive year in San Sebastián thanks to the agreement between Repsol and the Basque Government, the director of the guide, María Ritter, highlighted the sector’s efforts not only to stay afloat, but also to create new projects, so that “there are already 666 restaurants spread over every corner of Spain that are part of the Repsol Guide soles, whose vocation is to detect and value talent in the kitchen”.
