A 26-year-old chef from Madrid has scooped the coveted prize for the best croquette in Spain.
It’s arguably the national dish of Spain, with every family having their own recipe passed down through the generations and cooked to perfection by abuela. So, it may come as a surprise to learn that an upstart young chef has beaten 80 entrants to claim the prize of the best croqueta in Spain.
Spaniards take their croquetas so seriously the nation’s top chefs come together at Fusion, the gastronomic congress that takes place in Madrid each January to have their bite-size morsels judged by an illustrious panel brought together by famed jamon producers Sánchez Romero Carvajal.
In a blind tasting, judges were given two croquettes from each of the finalists in order to assess the creaminess of the inside, crunchiness of the exterior and combination of flavours.
And the 2026 results are in: the winning croqueta is a classic jamon variety made by Alejandro Cano, chef at Salino restaurant just next to Madrid’s Retiro park.
Each individual croquette at the establishment at 4,Calle Menorca, costs a mere €2.50.
“There’s no trick to it,” insisted Cano after receiving the award. “It’s simply a question of having a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of skill, and above all, a lot of stamina because you have to stir the béchamel sauce many times. And most importantly: having a lot of love for what you do.”
Of course it isn’t quite as simple as that. He revealed that his recipe involved infusing milk in jamon bones for 24hours before transforming it into bechamel.
“We infuse the milk with the ham the day before, cook it at a low temperature of 74º Celsius for an hour, and the next day we strain it to remove the fat and any rancidity. Then, we stir it a lot for 40 or 45 minutes,” he explains.
Once the bechamel bites are coated in panko to give it the crispy exterior, the frying process is also very precise. “At 180ºC for a minute and a half, and then another minute and a half in the oven so the heat reaches the center properly and it becomes as tender as can be.”
He said it had taken him months to hone the recipe into the perfect croqueta.
“It’s a tavern-style croquette, very much from Madrid. When you eat it, your lips stick together a little, that slightly edgy taste of ham… that’s what I like most about it,” he explained.
The other five finalists came from across Spain.
Miguel Fernández, from Restaurante Bancal (Madrid)
Samuel Moreno, from Molino de Alcuneza (Guadalajara)
Toni González, from El Nuevo Molino (Cantabria)
Julín A. Menéndez, from La Raíz 15 Casa de Comidas (Asturias)
Juanjo Mesa, from Restaurante Radis (Jaén)
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