The Cadiz Pedro Aguilera, from Restaurant Meson Sabor Andaluz (Alcala del Valle, Cadiz) , has been the winner of the Revelation Chef Award at the Madrid Fusión congress, thanks to the votes of 80 national gastronomic experts led by José Carlos Capel, who have chosen the Andalusian chef among the 8 nominees.
Minutes before knowing the name of the winner, the journalist and president of Madrid Fusión dedicated a few words to define each one of them and, in the case of Pedro Aguilera, he summed it up as “the green world in haute cuisine” , thus capturing the vegetable approach that characterizes the young Andalusian chef, who received the Bib Gourmand distinctive of the Michelin Guide for the first time in 2020 and has renewed it in the last two years and, in addition, it has been a Recommended Restaurant in the Repsol Guide since 2022.
Pistachios from Alcalá in green sauce and prawns in brine.
"I'm in a very sweet moment because I think I have found my place professionally and personally speaking”, Pedro Aguilera confessed to us shortly after knowing the verdict. That place is Alcalá del Valle, his hometown, where his parents, Antonia Jiménez and José Aguilera, have run the restaurant for 27 years.
The cook returned home in May, after several years working abroad, he gets emotional when talking about Ricard Camarena: "He is one of the people I love the most in the world." Now, Aguilera acknowledges that He is happy to value the producers (“without them we would not be here”), looking around, working the vegetables and defending a style of “very wild but at the same time very fine cuisine, with many Andalusian flavors”.
Pedro Aguilera, from Mesón Sabor Andaluz (Alcalá del Valle, Cádiz).
The second classified of this Madrid Fusión Revelation Chef Award has been the chef Elizabeth Nolla , from the Normal Restaurant (“it represents updated tradition”, reflected José Carlos Capel) and thirdly, Adrian San Julian Yume Gastro restaurant in the Asturian municipality of Avilés (“creativity and thought”).
The rest of the nominees were Carlos Hernandez del Rio of the ConSentido Restaurant in Salamanca (“la rebeldía”), Xosé Magalhaes and Lydia del Olmo of the Ceibe Restaurant (“Galician sensibility”), Juan Viu of the Viu Restaurant and Bar Barrunto de Barbate, Cádiz ("the cyclone, it's a gale"), Alex Paz and Olga Garcia of the Fuentelgato Restaurant in Huerta del Marquesado, Cuenca (“they are a miracle: they are far from everything and they make frankly good haute cuisine”) and Paco Villar and Sole Torres of the Terra Olea Restaurant in Córdoba ("the balance").
Grilled kidney, garlic and lemon thyme.
The Madrid Fusión Revelation Chef Award, which last year went to Javier Sanz and Juan Sahuquillo from Cañitas Maite y Oba, rewards “the daring and youthful capacity that many newly opened restaurants harbor and that are a window to the future of the profession”, as they explain from Madrid Fusión.
This recognition, which this year celebrates its 19th edition, It has been received over the years by established chefs such as Dabiz Muñoz, Ricard Camarena or Rodrigo de la Calle.