Right this moment I wish to let you know about three newly-awarded Michelin-starred eating places within the Area of Valencia in Spain. Simposio, Rubén Miralles, and Llavor have every been given a star within the MICHELIN Information Spain & Andorra 2026. On this promoting characteristic in partnership with the Area of Valencia, I’m going to indicate you why they’re value a particular journey.
1. Simposio
Positioned in San Antonio de Benagéber, Simposio is an area devoted to delicacies and gastronomy. The restaurant’s market-fresh cooking makes use of seasonal native produce, and Chef Roger Julián and his workforce work intently with native suppliers.
Simposio’s uncooked supplies arrive straight from the produce market, the vegetable backyard, and the fish market. Roughly 85% of the restaurant’s delicacies is constituted of merchandise that come immediately from producers within the Area of Valencia. The wine checklist relies on wines which are 100% from the group as effectively.
Simposio is Roger Julian’s dream. Simply 20 kilometers from Valencia in an off-the-beaten-path city, this gastronomic restaurant has simply 5 tables that seat as much as 20 friends. There’s an open kitchen built-in into the eating room, which permits the workforce to provide you with inventive ideas that work with seasonal produce with out masking it.
Chef Roger Julián creates his personal distinctive dishes. Substances are thoughtfully assembled, leading to elegant and balanced delicacies. The island-style kitchen in the midst of the eating room invitations diners to see, scent, and listen to what’s being cooked. Diners can method, have a look, and ask what’s occurring at any given second. This affords a novel, heat, and intimate expertise.
In accordance with the Michelin Information, Simposio ‘is a kind of eating places that justify our choice, because it has somewhat culinary gem’. It additionally highlighted the restaurant’s ‘cozy, up to date house, shared by the eating room and the kitchen,’ the place diners can observe your complete inventive course of and even chat with the chef himself.
Talking of whom, Roger Julián is a chef by vocation. With greater than 18 years of expertise, he started his coaching in 2001 on the Valencia College of Hospitality. Since then, he has added to his expertise by working in locations like La Sucursal (1 Michelin star in 2005), the gastronomic restaurant Apicius, famend chef Santi Santamaría’s Evo (1 Michelin star), and main lodge chains resembling Hesperia, Westin, and Las Arenas.
Simposio affords a connoisseur restaurant service from Thursday lunchtime to Sunday. It affords two tasting menus with 10 and 12 programs (85€ and 105€ respectively). On Thursday and Friday lunchtimes, it additionally has a 7-course tasting menu (68€). Moreover, Simposio affords cooking programs when the restaurant just isn’t open for service.
2. Rubén Miralles
The work that Rubén Miralles leads in his restaurant in Vinaroz within the province of Castellón is a celebration of origins and roots. Positioned on a small road within the outdated city, the delicacies showcases native, seasonal produce, that includes emblematic substances resembling Vinaròs prawns and Benicarló artichokes. These roots present a stable basis for inventive dishes that re-evolve market delicacies with new methods of doing issues that shock diners alongside the way in which.
In 2018, at simply 26 years outdated, Miralles launched Restaurante Rubén Miralles as his personal undertaking in his hometown. Since then, it has continued to evolve, searching for new types, new dishes, and new experiences for diners.
In 2022, this effort was acknowledged with a Sol within the Repsol Information. A yr later, the information reaffirmed this recognition and the restaurant additionally entered the Michelin Information as a Bib Gourmand.
Michelin awarded the restaurant its first star within the 2026 version. In accordance with the pink information, Rubén Miralles’ restaurant stands out for its ‘up to date delicacies with a inventive contact, which travels the world from the closest territory’.
The restaurant’s origins return a good distance. Rubén Miralles’ love for cooking was cast alongside his grandmother (whom he honors with the dish callos iaia Erotis, a recipe he realized from her).
After early experiences in front-of-house roles, he determined that his place was behind the range and, after ending his research as a chef in Benicarló, he labored as head chef in a number of eating places throughout Castellón.
Not like many Michelin-starred cooks, Miralles didn’t full his coaching in massive eating places alongside famend cooks, however in conventional eateries. The primary was Sancho Panza in Alcossebre, then a restaurant in Peñíscola, the place for eight years he fed a whole bunch of diners every single day. In his spare time, he learn cookbooks and sometimes went out to eat. At solely 33 years outdated, he earned his first Michelin star.
The restaurant presently affords 4 menus: Ruben Miralles menu (104€), Terreta menu (78€), Producte menu (49€), and Vegan menu (56€).
3. Llavor
Within the quiet city of Oropesa del Mar on the Castellón coast, a culinary superpower has emerged that has shortly grown in recognition and earned a spot within the Michelin Information. Underneath the identify Llavor—which suggests ‘seed’ in Valencian—it has been awarded a Michelin star within the 2026 version. Such an accolade locations it on the nationwide map of haute delicacies.
Run by younger cooks Jorge Lengua and Adrián Peralta, Llavor is a undertaking derived from the roots of the area. The culinary providing is characterised by a creativity that creates a dialogue between Mediterranean custom and a deep respect for native merchandise. Their delicacies explores the flavors of Castellón’s land, sea, and mountains, remodeling them with refined methods and up to date sensibility.
Llavor is housed in a contemporary house with a big terrace overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Jorge Lengua’s method displays a delicacies that seeks to boost the product with out pointless artifice.
This steadiness between native culinary heritage and technical exploration has made Llavor one of many province’s predominant gastronomic attracts. The excellence comes after 18 months of operation. It’s additionally a lift for Castellón’s delicacies, which continues to achieve visibility each nationally and internationally with modern choices which are derived from the territory however show inventive ambition that goes past its borders.
Llavor isn’t just a brand new Michelin-starred restaurant, however an announcement of goal: to domesticate delicacies from its origins with produce, panorama, and method as inseparable substances of a novel gastronomic expertise on the Costa de Azahar.
The cooks’ backgrounds contribute to this. Jorge Lengua was born in 1995 in Castellón’s Artana. Educated in a few of Spain’s best kitchens and with a number of gastronomic initiatives below his belt, Llavor is his most private endeavor.
Lengua skilled at GASMA Castellón, an establishment linked to CEU Cardenal Herrera. There he studied gastronomy and started to construct his technical and conceptual basis. His coaching included internships with prestigious cooks like Miguel Barrera at Cal Paradís (1 Michelin star). They allowed him to refine his fashion and study high-level skilled delicacies.
Lengua’s official profession started along with his personal initiatives, which started to display his culinary persona. In 2020, he opened his first restaurant, La Suculenta, in Benicàssim, Castellón. From its early years, it gained recognition from essential publications just like the Repsol Information and the Michelin Information. This established Lengua as a younger chef along with his personal voice.
Throughout this era, he gathered numerous essential awards: he was named Revelation Chef of the Area of Valencia 2021 and Finest Chef of the province of Castellón in 2023. These accolades replicate each his expertise and his capability for evolution and management throughout the native culinary scene.
Following these preliminary successes, Lengua launched Llavor in Oropesa del Mar, collectively along with his buddy and fellow chef Adrián Peralta. With Llavor, Jorge has achieved one of the crucial essential milestones of his profession: his first Michelin star within the 2026 version of the Michelin Information. Coming simply 18 months after the restaurant opened, that is an achievement that locations him among the many most related abilities in nationwide gastronomy at this time.
Lengua combines his work on the helm of Llavor along with his want to develop. He has expressed curiosity in growing initiatives linked to his hometown, Artana, and persevering with to contribute to the gastronomic improvement of the Area of Valencia.
Llavor affords two tasting menus, the “Recuerdo efímero” menu (69€) and the “Gran experiencia” menu (89€).
New Michelin-Starred Eating places in Valencia
I hope this weblog put up has impressed you to journey to the Area of Valencia and check out a number of of those eating places your self. Given how promising their cooks are, I’m positive it received’t be lengthy till all of them have their second (and third!) stars.
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