He grew up among cauldrons. Her mother, Amelia, a cook by trade, opened a traditional food restaurant in 1992 (with dishes such as potas, chickpeas, fish churros, chuchangas…), where little Aday (Santa Cruz of Tenerife, 1985) did not stop running around her skirts, wrapped in those aromas and flavors. This is how it was formed, from emotions. Remember that when he was 16 years old, while the rest of the kids were partying, he did not stop washing dishes, throwing coffee or taking out the garbage during those long weekends in the family business, with hardly any social life like that of other teenagers . “I wasn’t good at school,” he confesses without blushing, but he always showed an enormous capacity for work and, above all, a curious and truly restless character.
Thus, from the condition of an autodidact, He got closer and closer to the stove, trapped by the passion of the fires and by that something magical that turns food into a pleasure for others. It was at El Capricho de Nicomedes, on Anaga Santacrucera Avenue, where he immersed himself in the exciting world of seafood and, later, at Guachinche Como en Casa, he claimed his profile as a rice cooker.
In that place in the Agua García area, near Los Rodeos, their delicious paellas became famous. «He worked with a party of 18 fires, 12 for flats and 6 for soups», and he did it relentlessly. From there he made the leap to his current home, La Basílica, in Candelaria (formerly El Monaguillo and Santa Ana), where he has continued to work the grains, “up to 16 fires for the public,” he says proudly, as he is proud of his right arm, Tanausú Camacho Tana, who, in addition to taking care of multiple procedures, is an excellent grill cook and a great connoisseur of the technique of wood fire.
Precisely, this method appears in the bases of the Ciudad de Sueca International Valencian Paella Contest, the oldest contest of this specialty of those that exist in the world and also one of the most prestigious, a 61st edition attended by three local rice farmers, a broad representation of professionals from the Valencian Community, in addition to 13 who came from other parts of Spain –among which Aday Martín was invited as a guest representing La Basílica– and another 10 internationals. “For me, being invited already represents a prize,” says the man from Tenerife, who has no doubt that the appointment next September “is going to be an incredible experience”, in which he will be accompanied by Tana, a friend and companion in battles . For Aday it is a pride to be the only Canarian selected, representing the Islands, Tenerife and, of course, the municipality of Candelaria.
He still doesn’t quite believe it, he, who dreamed of traveling to Valencia and attending this contest as a spectator, and who this Wednesday officially presented the paella with which he will enter the contest, a typical rice with snails, beans and broad beans, because « Paella is one thing and rice with things is quite another”, he says.
The Nougat House and Rafael Mañez
Pedro Pacheco runs La Casa del Turrón, an establishment dedicated to the distribution of gastronomic products and which, among its brands, has Rafael Mañez’s rice dishes. By the way, Pedro highlights the origin of this rice grower, who five years ago decided to focus on the production of monovarietals, with the idea of rescuing forgotten varieties, two of them with Denomination of Origin. This small farmer, a typical rice processor, is involved from the preparation of the land, the cultivation and drying, the processing, the packaging of the rice and the sale, an exercise in traceability, emphasizes Pacheco, which gives these products, vacuum packed and without using chemical products, the consideration of sustainable and ecological. They grow and produce up to four varieties of rice that they market with the guarantee of the highest varietal purity and a gourmet line, which is presented in the typical cloth sack and also in a cardboard case.
