Castilla-La Mancha is one of the communities that has seen their culinary standards rise the most recently. The Raiz Culinaria program provides institutional support, but it is mainly due to the hard work of young cooks who have a lot of talent. Manolo De la Osa was the pioneer in battling against all the elements and difficult times. He is also the precursor to what we now call ‘rural cooking’. He surprised his friends with Spanish food, inspired by his homeland’s recipes, and he added his unique touch of creativity and modernity to the Las Rejas.
He reviewed La Mancha’s most popular dishes, including the atascaburras and the galianos. Pepe Rodriguez Rey succeeded De la Osa, another great chef. He is now more focused on TV than his restaurant El Bohio, Illescas, where he still holds a Michelin star.
El Bohio is among nine restaurants with Red Guide stars. This is a figure that was unimaginable just a few years back. Maralba (Almansa), and Ivan Cerdeno, (Toledo), have two. The third, the second, is very close to me. I was talking about it here a few weeks back. This list includes Trivio, Cuenca, Raices, Talavera de la Reina, Retama, Torrenueva, Coto de Quevedo, Juan Abad Tower, El Molino de alcuneza, and El Doncel. These are located in Siguenza which has just 4,500 inhabitants.
Its commitment, like all previous ones, is to cook the environment and to adapt products to new trends. It is something I was able to confirm by eating at both of these restaurants. Samuel Moreno’s perdigacho, or pig’s trotter carpaccio at El Molino, along with their bread, and Enrique Perez’s trout with bacon at El Doncel or charcoal-grilled Venson loin at El Doncel are excellent dishes on high-level menus.
Castilian and La Mancha are two examples of a cuisine that is comparable to other parts of Spain.