Victor Talavera, from the Talavera restaurant in Valladolid, With his kitchen assistant Andrea San José and under the direction of César Boal, president of Maestres, he won the Spanish Cooking Championship held on the 18th and 19th at the Concha Espina Theater in the Cantabrian town of Torrelavega.
The participants, who came from all the autonomous communities, had to, in accordance with the regulations, prepare a fish dish and a meat dish. using all the same raw materials, machote and picaña. The proposals of the representative of Castilla y León were “Marbled machote with sea aromas” and “Autumn Picaña” which, after some close deliberations of the jury, since the championship was ultimately decided by the details, gave him the victory.
In his first statements, the chef from Valladolid, very excited, declared: “It’s impressive, it’s a source of pride, winning this national championship with the level we had, it’s crazy. We’ve been working on the dishes since a long time with the great support of the Maesters, but you never expect to win. You have to feel the kitchen.”
In addition to the representative trophy, he obtained a financial prize of 3,000 euros.
The jury was made up of renowned chefs representing the participating autonomous communities, as well as other nationally renowned chefs such as Pepa Muñoz, president of Facyre, Niño Redruello or Pedro Larumbe.
The trophies were presented by the mayor of Torrelavega Javier López Estrada and the president of Cocineros de Cantabria Floren Bueyes. The next edition of the competition in 2025 will take place in the Balearic Islands.
