Fran Martínez, from the Maralba restaurant in Almansa (Albacete), and David García, from Corral de la Morería (Madrid), have been the main protagonists this afternoon of the awards ceremony that the Repsol Guide has held in the Auditorium of the Diputación de Alicante (ADDA) to publicize their new Soles 2023. Both establishments, of very different styles, have achieved the highest score from a guide that this year has 101 novelties, announced at a gala presented by the actress Silvia Abril to which Renowned chefs attended, such as Joan Roca, Andoni Luis Aduriz, Elena Arzak, Pedro Subijana, Toño Pérez, Ricard Camarena and Hilario Arbelaitz, among others.
While García has assured La Vanguardi that his Corral de la Morería deserved these new three Soles for being "a unique place, a flamenco tablao with a firm gastronomic proposal and an important commitment to Jerez wines", Martínez has shown himself grateful to have achieved this recognition just this year, as Maralba celebrates its twentieth anniversary.
18 restaurants have obtained the second Sol: Ambivium (Peñafiel), Amelia (Donostia), the Catalans Bo.Tic (Corça) and Castell Peralada (Peralada), Con Sentido (Salamanca), Deessa (Madrid), El Lago (Marbella), Garena (Dima), Hika (Villabona), Mantúa (Jerez de la Frontera), Montia (San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Nub (Costa Adeje), O Camino do Inglés (Ferrol), Oba (Casas-Ibañez), which previously did not had no Sol Repsol, O Pazo (Padrón), Rekondo (Donostia), Umiko (Madrid) and Voro (Capdepera). "We are at a time when we are playing with a line of continuity with the product and with a kitchen without high and low, perhaps for this reason recognition has come to us this year", explained chef Albert Sastregener, in charge of Bo.Tic.
Of the 81 restaurants that have won their first Repsol Sun, nine are Catalan: Aleia, Atempo, Come, Enigma, Granja Elena, Pur and Slow and Low from Barcelona; in Lleida Er Estranger (Vielha and Mijaran) and in Tarragona Quatre Molins (Cornudella del Montsant). With the new additions, Catalonia has 105 soles and becomes the Community with the most distinctions, above Madrid (98), Euskadi (68), Andalusia (66), Valencian Community or Castilla y León (both have 58 soles). .
The presentation gala of the new edition of the guide, with the motto La cocina nos llena , has wanted this year to reaffirm the vigor of Spanish cuisine, which is experiencing constant openings and has full rooms after the harsh situation it has had to face the sector during the pandemic. The meeting also wanted to honor chef Hilario Arbelaitz, from Zuberoa (Guipuzkoa), recently retired from the kitchen, and Abraham García, who plans to close his restaurant Viridiana (Madrid).
They both received an Honorary Repsol Sun, which was presented by Pedro Subijana, for having contributed modernity with respect to gastronomy and for leaving a mark on several generations of chefs. While Arbelaitz defended Basque cuisine all his life by updating traditional recipes, García was the first to put fusion cuisine into practice at the end of the 70s in Madrid, when the term had not yet been invented. The audience at the Alicante Provincial Council Auditorium burst into applause when both chefs were honored, this being one of the most emotional moments of the night.
According to Antonio Brufau, Chairman of Repsol, who has participated in the awards ceremony, the new edition of the Repsol Guide -it already has 713 restaurants awarded Soles and with 1,269 recommended ones- reflects that the talent in Spanish kitchens has passed another year: “It is very good news that such an important economic sector has recovered and is more vigorous than ever. Few things make us as happy in our culture as sharing a good table”, he explained. These words have been reaffirmed by Ximo Puig, president of the Generalitat Valenciana, who stressed that "gastronomy is a common good that concentrates the culture, customs and knowledge of a territory". Puig pointed out the identity traits of Mediterranean gastronomy based on "the landscape, sustainability, quality and tradition".
For her part, María Ritter, director of Guía Repsol, explained to La Vanguardia some of the culinary trends that her inspectors have detected this year. Among them “the return to town by the youngest cooks with the intention of updating the grandmother's recipe book and, at the same time, revitalizing unpopulated areas; or love in the kitchen, with couples who combine living room and kitchen like a perfect tandem”.
