Tapas championship: Valladolid cooks win Spain and world titles
Jiale Pan of Jiapan won Spain's national contest with a lamb bao, and Alejandro San José of Habanero Taquería took the world title with a Mexican-rooted tapa.
Three days of tapas championship cooking at Valladolid's Cúpula del Milenio ended on Wednesday 11 November with both titles staying in the city: Jiale Pan of Jiapan won the XXII Concurso Nacional de Pinchos y Tapas, and Alejandro San José of Habanero Taquería took the X Campeonato Mundial de Tapas.
Pan, a Spanish-Chinese cook who runs Jiapan in the city centre, beat 44 rivals with 'Doce/29': a lamb reduction served inside a bao bun, finished with leek and a pesto of pine nuts from Pedrajas, in the province of Valladolid. The name refers to 29 December in the Chinese lunar calendar.
The national prize is €10,000 and a place as Spain's entry at the 2027 World Tapas Championship. In June the same tapa won the Pincho de Oro at the provincial contest, which sent Jiapan to the national final. Second place and €5,000 went to Teo Rodríguez of Trasto, also in Valladolid, for 'Bola del mundo', a monkfish stew with citrus and coconut. Juan García Domínguez of Dolar Coreses in Vitoria-Gasteiz was third with 'Volcán del norte', pork cheek braised in tomato and red wine. The national jury was chaired by the Brazilian cook Janaína Torres.
Spain's two tapa titles went to Valladolid kitchens cooking with Chinese and Mexican references.
A Mexican tapa wins the world tapas championship for Spain
San José competed in the world final as Spain's representative, a place he earned by winning the 2025 national contest with a tapa called 'Milpa'. His winning 'Milpa Meseta' is a crisp corn ring filled with lamb stewed in green tomatillo sauce, with a cod chintextle, a Oaxacan chilli paste, and pineapple pickled in tepache, the fermented pineapple drink.
The world prize is also €10,000. Alonso Luna Zarate of Ojo Bangkok, representing Thailand, came second with 'The last chance croquette', a tripe-based take on the bar classic best known in Spain as the ham croqueta, worth €5,000. Kenny Wei Kiat Gan of Hachi by Kenny's, for Malaysia, was third with 'Pansuh under the Borneo Canopy', built on the bamboo cooking of Borneo's Indigenous peoples, worth €2,500. Mario Sandoval, who heads the world championship, chaired its jury.
What the tapas championship double means for Valladolid
Sandoval said the two contests had raised the standing of the tapa as a language through which the primary sector, culture and a whole people can express themselves. Both winners come from Valladolid kitchens that cook with references from outside Spain, one Chinese and one Mexican.
Mayor Jesús Julio Carnero closed the event. All competing tapas are served at partner bars and restaurants across Valladolid until Sunday 15 November. The provincial food brand Alimentos de Valladolid, which groups more than 600 companies, received an award for its first ten years.
