Mexican cooks win contest for making “the best paella in the world” in Spain

Last weekend the 61st edition of the Sueca Valencian Paella International Contesta festival that was declared of tourist interest and is celebrated in the province of Valencia, Spain, where on September 11, a couple of Mexican chefs won the award for the best paella in the world.

This contest has been commemorated since 1961 and is an international event that brings together dozens of chefs, who must compete to see who best prepares the typical Spanish dish. Thus, on September 11, 42 restaurants from 12 countries participated in the contest to find out who prepares the best paella in the world.

Local authorities and hundreds of people gathered at the Paseo de la Estación to commemorate the gastronomic event in which Mexicans Rogelio Castañón, 30, and Alfonso Ovalle, 32, represented Crocus Gastronomic Services, from Guadalupe, Zacatecas, Mexico, and took first place with a prize of 2,500 euros, just over 2,535 dollars.

Excited to be commemorated with the first place and to receive a commemorative parchment delivered by the mayor of Sueca, Dimas Vázquez, the young Mexicans assured that although this dish is not well known in Mexico, they will try to promote the classic paella recipe, something in which they have specialized since they studied the race.

It is a very satisfying dream. What happened yesterday, the truth is that we didn’t even believe it. It is something that is very complex to explain. Paella has brought us a lot of satisfaction and that is why we have worked with it since we were students, we began to learn about paella, and that is why it began to interest us.

– Rogelio Castanon

Second place went to the inn “El Molino”, a restaurant in Valencia, while third place went to the German restaurant Bornheimer Ratskeller in Frankfurt, with a prize of 1,500 and 1,000 euros, respectively.

Un mexicà 🇲🇽 guanya the First Prize of the 61 International Paelle Contest of Sueca, world capital of the 🥘🌎. The second award was followed by a Xinés 🇨🇳 with a restaurant in Valencia and the third was in Germany 🇩🇪. Sense cap mena de dubte, the Valencian paella is worldwide! pic.twitter.com/dBx7zBrWu2

— Eugeni Alemany (@EugeniAlemany) September 11, 2022

A Mexican wins the first prize at the 61st International Paella Competition in Sueca, the world capital of paella. The second prize has been for a Chinese with a restaurant in Valencia and the third has gone to Germany. Without a doubt, Valencian paella is worldwide!

It is worth mentioning that renowned chefs do not participate in this event, since all the contestants are chefs who send an application to be worthy of preparing paella.

For their part, the pair of Mexican chefs had the opportunity to travel to Valencia due to the support of the Government of the State of Querétaro, who join the list that, together with other countries such as Cuba and the United States, have won first place in this holiday.