The best ham croquette in the world 2021 is in Casas-Ibáñez (Albacete)
Definitely, our next gastronomic trip will be to Casas-Ibáñez : at the Cañitas Maite restaurant (whose very young chefs have also won the Revelation Chef award today) is the best Joselito ham croquette.
“Everything in Cañitas Maite revolves around our land . In our case, as we are surrounded by sheep, we make our croquettes with sheep's milk because when you give importance to your environment, only good things can come out." The flavor and creaminess of the Cañitas Maite croquette is the result of this commitment to the territory, but it has other secrets that have also been revealed to us: they use butter in the roux (the mixture of flour and a fat that serves as a base to make the bechamel), the Joselito ham they chop it with a knife, they spread their hands with olive oil to roll the bechamel and the batter is panko (dry breadcrumbs in flakes or scales), to achieve a crunchier result. “ And it is made with a lot of affection and a lot of love for our land, which is the important thing. ”. The croquette can be tasted at the Cañitas Maite bar.
In the seventh edition of the contest that generates the most expectation, organized by Madrid Fusión, there have been 7 finalists: apart from the chefs from Cañitas Maite, there were also Senén González, from the Sagartoki restaurant (Vitoria, Álava); Álex García, from the Umm Food & Drink restaurant (Logroño, La Rioja); Antonio Navarro, from the Essentia restaurant (Tarancón, Cuenca); Daniel Zarzavilla from the Tragatá restaurant (Ronda, Málaga); Diego Pérez, from the Bina Bar restaurant (Jerez de la Frontera, Cádiz) and Martín Comamala , from the 539 Plats Forts restaurant (Puigcerdà, Girona), but it has been the young Castilian-La Mancha chefs who have risen to victory.
And another curiosity: for the third consecutive year, the best ham croquette in the world is in Castilla La-Mancha, since the 2019 winner was Javier Ugidos from Tobiko (Toledo) and the 2020 winner was Alberto García Escudero, from the Iván Cerdeño restaurant. , also in the capital of the La Mancha region, which lately is giving so much to talk about, gastronomically speaking.