Emilio Medina wins Spain's Young Talent gastronomy award
The Palencia grower behind La Mielga, a project that rescues old seeds in Tierra de Campos, completes the seven 2026 National Gastronomy Awards before the Toledo gala.
Emilio Medina, a horticulturist from Villalcázar de Sirga in the Spanish province of Palencia, has won the 2026 National Gastronomy Award for Young Talent. The Real Academia de Gastronomía announced the decision on 22 October, a day after its jury met.
The prize recognises La Mielga, the project Emilio Medina runs to recover traditional seeds and crop varieties, and the rural knowledge that comes with them. For roughly a decade he has worked a family plot in Tierra de Campos, the flat cereal plain of northern Castile, where he has gathered hundreds of tomato varieties alongside legumes, garlic and other vegetables.
How Emilio Medina builds his seed collection
A prize usually reserved for kitchens and dining rooms has gone to a seed collection in Palencia.
Much of the collection arrives through exchanges with farmers and older growers in different regions, according to the academy. Medina then selects each variety and adapts it to local conditions. "What I was given is here in Palencia, so that is what I do," Medina told Tribuna de Palencia.
The work has already left the field. This year his Negro del Escorial, an old variety from the Madrid region, was named Spain's best tomato at the Feria Nacional del Tomate Antiguo in Polanco, Cantabria. The Basque Culinary Center also placed Emilio Medina on its 2026 list of 100 Young Gastronomy Talents.
The jury was chaired by chef Dabiz Muñoz and included Patricia Gutiérrez, communications director of the Basque Culinary Center, the academicians Miguel Loya, Ángel Parada and Rosa Vañó, and the academy's president, Luis Suárez de Lezo. Its minutes cite the difficulty of the project, the way it links agricultural heritage with research and rural development, and Medina's ability to explain his work to the public. "Emilio Medina fits the spirit of this award very well, with what we look for in candidates," Muñoz said, describing La Mielga as difficult, different and coherent.
Emilio Medina completes the 2026 winners
Medina's name closes the seven categories of the 52nd edition of the awards, which the academy has handed out since 1974. Over the summer it named Pedro Sánchez of Bagá in Jaén best head chef, Casto Copete for dining-room management, Mohamed Benabdallah best sommelier, Pilar Salas for communication and Josep Bernabeu for research and innovation. Jaume Subirós received the lifetime achievement award on 8 October.
The prizes will be handed over on 9 November at the Palacio de Congresos El Greco in Toledo; last year's ceremony was held in Granada.
Spain's tomato culture is better known through dishes such as gazpacho andaluz than through the seeds behind them. La Mielga works on the part of that chain that usually goes unseen, and from November it does so with a national prize attached.
