Since 2002, Spain’s gastronomic yr has kicked off at Madrid Fusión, a jamboree the place high cooks from everywhere in the world show-cook, share dishes of rarefied components and description new culinary ideas. Wrapping up the three-day occasion is the crowning of Spain’s greatest younger chef (typically a duo) or “revelation”. This yr’s seven candidates ranged from eating places as far afield as Galicia within the north-west to Tenerife, Seville and Madrid. Most cook dinner at intimate areas with few tables, and provide components and cooking methods you’d be hard-pushed to search out on a British menu with out breaking the financial institution.
We begin in Galicia, with the winners of the greatest rising cooks for 2025.
Restaurante Simpar, Santiago de Compostela, Galicia
Pilgrims have been strolling to Santiago for over a millennium, and now gastronomes are following to find this Michelin-star restaurant south of the monumental cathedral. Opened in summer time 2023 by Axel Smyth, 33, a local of town, along with his Ecuadorian accomplice Claudia Merchán, 32, it affords a classy tackle Galicia’s pristine produce from the rugged coast to its verdant hills.
Seven tables host a 14-course Simpar (€110) or 11-course Conocer (€85) menus, each beginning with an creative play on mushrooms and ending with a deconstructed Santiago tart.
In case you’re a tripe fan, bask in Simpar’s award-winning stew with chickpeas and don’t miss the ham croquetas – one other prize winner. Different distinctive concoctions are rooster with chocolate and truffle, and scallops (the pilgrims’ image) in a meunière sauce. From the wine listing, which is 70% Galician, Axel suggests Quinta da Muradella (€84) constructed from the white Treixadura grape.
restaurantesimpar.com
Restaurante Sisé, Lleida, Catalonia
We’re in Catalan territory at 27-year-old Ángel Esteve’s buoyant restaurant in Lleida, which capitalises on native suppliers within the Pyrenees, in Aragón and on the coast. Idiosyncratically named after his grandparents’ house, which is on the sixth (sisé in Catalan) flooring, it has eight tables dealing with an open kitchen. “We don’t need to disguise what we do,” says Angel, a lot influenced by his time on the high Catalan restaurant El Celler de Can Roca.
The menu displays childhood meals reminiscences, as do his sister’s charming wall drawings, and specialises in charcoal grills and stews that change weekly. There’s something earthy right here, from a starter of artichoke, comté cheese and truffle (€16), to mains of barbecued lamb with calçot onions and romesco sauce (€21), or rice with quail and burrata cream (€28). Angel’s signature dessert is a chocolate tart rivalled by a calorie-light teaser of blackberries, goat cheese and galette (each €7). Uncommon wines (€25-€150) are nationwide and French.
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Restaurante Ausiàs, Pedreguer, Alicante
As Felicia Guerra, the spouse of Ausiàs Signes, places it, they’re “in a random city of seven,000 inhabitants”, in order that they hardly anticipated instantaneous success. After assembly at Madrid’s Cordon Bleu faculty, they’ve welcomed prospects from afar to their slick restaurant of simply seven tables in Pedreguer, which is inland from the Costa Blanca fishing port of Dénia and an hour’s drive from Alicante. “It means we handle to fill the restaurant, so there’s no waste, which retains our costs affordable,” says Ausiàs, who heads the kitchen, leaving entrance of home to Felicia.
They protect conventional flavours, strategies and components – however with a twist. Their tasting menu (€84 for 12 programs or €62 for 10) is powerful on reinvented seafood comparable to cuttlefish with cauliflower, yeast and bergamot, or baked grouper with roast cabbage and pickled seaweed. Carnivores despair not, as roast lamb additionally options. Finish with a luscious ode to Valencian oranges, an emulsion of orange, olive oil and saffron. The wine listing (€29-€500) focuses on small Mediterranean wineries and uncommon champagnes.
ausiasrestaurante.com
Restaurante Arsa, Logroño, La Rioja
Within the full of life historic capital of La Rioja, this place is run by Beatriz Fernández and her husband Rodrigo. Since opening below a yr in the past, the quirkily embellished restaurant of twenty-two tables hasn’t appeared again.
An appetiser of chilled orange soup with bluefin tuna tartare (€6) would possibly proceed with a starter of untamed boar stew with oloroso sherry (€16) or scallops in broth with cauliflower (€18). Mains embrace turbot with seaweed, semi-dried tomato and black olives (€24) and wooden pigeon smoked with vine stalk alongside roasted chestnuts and lemon in brine (€26). Desserts vary from a pomegranate and rose sorbet (€8) to pumpkin cake with olive oil and thyme ice-cream (€8). True gourmets ought to order the 12-course tasting menu (€70) backed up by cheap wines and sherries from Andalucía and La Rioja. For an uncommon tipple, Rodrigo recommends a Riojan white, Eraso Azala (€25) – “not fairly orange, extra darkish golden” – constructed from grapes of their pores and skin.
arsarestaurante.es
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Restaurante Lur, Madrid
“Hospitality and eating places are in my blood – I’m the fourth era,” says 22-year-old Lucia Gutiérrez, proprietor and chef of Lur in Madrid’s Legazpi district. Due to the close by catalysts of Madrid Rio, a brand new city park, and the Matadero up to date arts centre, this southern neighbourhood has been energised. So, simply over a yr in the past, Lucia took over the restaurant house of her now retired father.
With solely 5 tables, its spacious inside of pure woods and potted olive bushes exudes calm, a high quality mirrored in her meticulous cooking and plating. The seven-course tasting menu (€87) stays seasonal, although greens dominate and Lucia injects a positive line between savoury and candy. Sourced from small producers, some components hail from the Basque Nation the place Lucia labored close to San Sebastián. The title itself, Lur, is Basque for “land”.
restaurantelur.es
Restaurante Ethical, Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Within the centre of sunny Santa Cruz, the capital of Tenerife, and the ferry gateway to different islands, is Restaurante Ethical – a reputation referring to the mulberry tree and to the restaurant’s ethics. It was opened final summer time by Canarian couple Icíar and Juan Carlos Pérez-Alcalde, who met working at Poemas by Hermanos Padrón, La Palma’s high restaurant. Ethical brings impressed delicacies to locals and guests within the serene setting of a transformed mansion with solely six tables.
Island produce dominates, whether or not within the five-course tasting menu (€50) or à la carte decisions. Right here you have got a starter of aubergine with eel, yoghurt and mushrooms (€19), most important programs of duck in an orange sauce spiked with dried fruits (€27) or skate with mussel and parsley sauce (€25). Wash down a dessert of roast beetroot, ardour fruit and flowers (€7) with a Tenerife wine advisable by Juan Carlos – a lightweight, fragrant Finca Vegas constructed from the white Listán grape (€26).
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Restaurante Leartá, Seville
Hidden down a aspect road south of the burgeoning Alameda, Leartá conjures up formidable dishes that fuse Andalucían custom with method. On the helm is Manu Lachica, 30, a real Sevillano, and his spouse, Rita Llanes, a 23-year-old Catalan. After working collectively in Galicia, they opened Leartá lower than a yr in the past.
“We would like folks to really feel at residence as nicely as showcase Seville’s trades comparable to hand-painted tiles and handmade furnishings,” says Manu.
With an open kitchen, the restaurant seats 12 and affords 10 advanced dishes (€72). Every performs with textures and temperatures. Wild boar comes with burrata, a relaxing pumpkin broth contains salted kaki fruit and sea urchin cream, whereas a candy edge is available in celery macerated in natural syrup with butter from the yeast of wine barrels.
Teetotallers can experience scrumptious kombuchas (€6) infused with fruits comparable to limequats, ginger and mint. Wines (€35-€147), together with sherries, are from rising Andalucían vintners in addition to nationwide and worldwide labels.
leartasevilla.com
