Terrae will bring together rural chefs from the 17 autonomous communities in the southeast of Gran Canaria.

The third edition of Terrae, the international rural gastronomy event, returns to Gran Canaria on the 23rd, 24th and 25th of March. An adventure that is more than just a gastronomic event. Terrae, organised by Vocento Gastronomía and with the Cabildo de Gran Canaria as its institutional sponsor, is a space for sharing concerns, projects and personal experiences, and for raising one's voice in defence of the rural environment as a source of life and wealth. Three days full of surprises in the towns of Agüimes, Santa Lucía and Ingenio. More than 50 chefs who have their roots in the rural world, their life's project, will come together with local producers and experts to share their concerns and challenges. Covering the whole country, with rural chefs from all 17 Spanish Autonomous Communities, Terrae will offer a map of the current situation in rural areas and the role that gastronomy plays in them as a driving force for social and economic revitalisation. At the same time, the experience of neighbouring countries will be taken into account with the presence of chefs from rural Portugal and Italy. In addition, for the third edition, Terrae will pay tribute to the Colombian chef Leonor Espinosa (LEO, Bogotá), the most famous chef in Latin America and an example of the link with producers and territories.

In addition to the award-winning Leonor Espinosa, the international representation will be led by five Portuguese chefs: Octávio Freitas (Desarma*, Funchal); Lídia Brás (Stramuntana, Vila Nova de Gaia); Filipe Ramalho (Páteo Real, Alter do Chão); António Queiroz (Taberna Lura, Baião) and Rodrigo Castelo (Ó Balcão*, Santarém). Also present in Gran Canaria will be two representatives of Italian rural cuisine, Giuseppe Iannotti (Krèsios**, Telese Terme, Campania) and the Colombian Juan Camilo Quintero (Il Poggio Rosso*, San Felice, Tuscany), as well as the Andorran Jordi Grau (Ibaya*, Soldeu), who will share his vision of the rural movement in these little country. 

From the national territory, Terrae will have the presence of chefs from all the Autonomous Communities. Galicia, with Pepe Solla (Casa Solla*, Poio, Pontevedra); Asturias, with Xune Andrade (Monte*, San Feliz), Isaac Loya (Real Balneario*, Salinas) and Pepe Ron (Bar Blanco, Cangas del Narcea); Cantabria will be represented by Nacho Solana (Solana*, Ampuero) and David Pérez (Ronquillo, Ramales de la Victoria), and the Basque Country will be represented by Julen Baz (Garena*, Lamindao, Vizcaya). After the Pyrenees, Navarre is represented by José Ignacio Jauregui (Maskarada, Lekunberri); La Rioja by Ignacio Echapresto (Venta Moncalvillo**, Daroca de Rioja) and Aragón by Iris Jordán (Ansils*, Anciles, Huesca), Eduardo Salanova (Canfranc Express*, Canfranc, Huesca) and Josetxo Souto & Ramón Aso (Callizo*, L'Aínsa, Huesca). The Catalan delegation includes Rafel Muria (Quatre Molins*, Cornudella de Montsant, Tarragona), Vicent Guimerà (L'Antic Molí*, Ulldecona, Tarragona), Joan Capilla (L'Algadir del Delta, Poblenou del Delta, Tarragona), Joel Castanyé (La Boscana*, Bellvís, Lleida) and Andrés Torres (Casa Nova*, Sant Martí Sarroca, Barcelona); and the Balearic Islands will be represented by Maria Solivellas (Ca Na Toneta, Caimari, Mallorca). Also from the Mediterranean will be the Comunidad Valenciana with Miguel Barrera (Cal Paradís, Vall d'Alba, Castellón) and the Region of Murcia with Salvador Fernández Sánchez (Borrego, Bullas). From the centre of the peninsula, Miguel Carretero (Santerra*, Madrid) and from neighbouring Castilla La Mancha, Enrique Pérez (El Doncel*, Sigüenza, Guadalajara), Samuel Moreno (El Molino de Alcuneza*, Sigüenza, Guadalajara) and Miguel Ángel Expósito (Retama*, Ciudad Real).From the other Castilla, that of León, we have Luis Alberto Lera (Lera*, Castroverde de Campos, Zamora), Elena Lucas (La Lobita*, Navaleno, Soria); Miguel Ángel de la Cruz (La Botica* (Matapozuelos, Valladolid), José Gordón (El Capricho, Jiménez de Jamuz); Sara Ferreres (Taller Arzuaga*, Quintanilla de Onésimo, Valladolid) and Jesús Colorado (Grupo Gonzalo, Salamanca). From Extremadura come chefs Alejandro Hernández (Versátil*, Zarza de Granadilla, Cáceres) and Carlos García-Adámez (Hábitat Cigüeña Negra, Valverde del Fresno, Cáceres); And from Andalusia, Pedro Aguilera (Mesón Sabor Andaluz*, Alcalá del Valle, Cádiz), Juan Carlos García (Vandelvira*, Baeza, Jaén) and José Álvarez (La Costa*, El Ejido, Almería). The Canary Islands are of course represented by Gran Canaria with Aridani Alonso & Víctor Lugo (Casa Romántica, Agaete, Gran Canaria) and Borja Marrero (Muxgo*, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria) and Tenerife with Diego Schattenhofer (Taste 1973*, Arona). 

The programme will be intense during the three days of the Congress, and the gastronomy of the island of Gran Canaria itself will be well represented in several of the Congress activities, through some of its most emblematic chefs and establishments. During the open day on Sunday 23rd March, the ambassadors of Canarian cuisine will be Manolo González, chef at the restaurant La Tunera (Telde), Nisamar González (Magec Café and Burger Bar, Agüimes) and Kilian Nordelo of the Catedral Bistró, from Arucas, who will be offering their tapas and small dishes at affordable prices from 12 noon in the Plaza del Rosario in Agüimes. A popular gastronomic event that they will be sharing with several country chefs from the peninsula: Jesús Colorado (Mesón de Gonzalo, Salamanca), Óscar García (Baluarte*, Soria), Vicent Guimerà (L'Antic Molí*, Ulldecona, Tarragona), Joan Capilla (L'Algadir del Delta, Poblenou del Delta, Tarragona), Nacho Solana (Solana, Ampuero, Cantabria), David Pérez (Ronquillo, Ramales, Cantabria) and Portuguese chefs António Queiroz and Lídia Brás. There will also be a section dedicated to Gran Canaria cheeses and wines. 

Gran Canaria, the star of gastronomic experiences

In the afternoon, the participants of this third edition of Terrae will travel to the Arinaga lighthouse, one of the two that mark the east coast of the island of Gran Canaria, The first meeting of the congress will be held there, followed by a welcome dinner prepared by Gran Canaria's chefs Alexander Herrera (Sábor, Santa Lucía) and Ruyman González (Los Guayres*, Puerto de Mogán), and the proposal of Poemas by Hermanos Padrón* (Las Palmas), led by their chef, Adrián García. The sweet end of the evening will also have a Canarian flavour, with desserts created by pastry chef Yeray Reyes.

Before that, the 'mayor of rural chefs', Luis Alberto Lera of the Lera restaurant in Castroverde de Campos (Zamora), who was elected last year in Gáldar, will report on the meeting he recently held with the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, to present some of the demands of the rural chefs' collective. 

Monday's programme will begin at the Teatro Municipal de Agüimes, in the old bullring, with hosts from the island itself: Aridani Alonso & Víctor Lugo (Casa Romántica, Agaete), who will talk about the rural cuisine of the mountains of Gran Canaria. José Ignacio Jauregui (Maskarada, Lekunberri, Navarre); José Gordón (Bodega El Capricho, Jiménez de Jamuz, León); Vicent Guimerà (L'Antic Molí*, Ulldecona, Catalonia) and Jerónimo Marrero (Bochinche-Bodega La Montaña, Vega de San Mateo, Gran Canaria)will talk about rural restaurants that develop business models that go beyond cooking. Ignacio Echapresto, one of the Iberian Peninsula's great rural references, will also take part in this Monday session at Terrae. His restaurant (Venta de Moncalvillo**, Daroca de Rioja, La Rioja) is located in a town of just 24 inhabitants, the smallest in the world to have a Michelin-starred restaurant. Chefs Rodrigo Castelo (Taberna O Balcao*, Santarem), Octávio Freitas (Desarma*, Funchal) and Filipe Ramalho (Páteo Real, Alter do Chao) will talk about the development of rural gastronomy in Portugal, where a revolution is taking place, and give a cooking demonstration. 

At the third edition of Terrae, Leonor Espinosa (LEO, Bogotá, Colombia) will receive the Congress Award, which recognises the work of the best chef in the world in 2022 on the World's 50 Best Restaurants list as an advocate of the stove as a tool to lift indigenous communities out of poverty. Leo Espinosa sees cooking as an artistic process with a strong social component. To this end, he created the Funleo social foundation, through which he works with various indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities, with the aim of raising the profile of these territories, promoting their development and putting their cultures and ancestral foods on the map.

The cheese value chain

The session will conclude with a round table discussion on the cheese value chain, its present and its future, with the participation of Michele Buster (founder of Forever Cheese and the largest importer of Spanish cheese in the USA), the Galician chef Pepe Solla (Restaurante Pepe Solla*, Poio, Pontevedra), the Gran Canarian producer Lucía Torres (Quesería Era del Cardón, Agüimes) and the Asturian journalist Carlos Maribona (gastronomic critic for ABC). 

Afterwards, Terrae will take the hundred or so guests of this third edition to three restaurants in the historic centre of Agüimes: Bar Terraza San Antón, El Guachinche and El Patio de Carmencita. 

After lunch, the group will go to the Tenefé Salt Flats Ethnographic Complex in Santa Lucía to learn from Manuel Navarro, the salt flats manager, about the secrets of the virgin salt produced in this area - the best-preserved example of mud salt flats in Gran Canaria - built at the end of the 18th century to supply salt to fishing boats. Today, these salt flats are a gastronomic reference point. During the afternoon, participants will have the opportunity to work in different areas of the salt flats. 

Among the more than 50 rural chefs taking part in this year's congress, there is a strong presence of young people who have chosen to develop their businesses in small rural centres, such as Julen Baz, Iris Jordán, Juan Carlos García, Xune Andrade, Alejandro Hernández and Pedro Aguilera, the revelation chef of Madrid Fusión in 2023. In recent years, there have been a number of young chefs who have decided to return to their roots and, after exploring the world and broadening their knowledge and gastronomic horizons, have chosen to open their own restaurants or follow the family tradition in the villages where they were born. Terrae is linking one of this year's gastronomic activities to this movement, and on the evening of Monday 24th March, the Gorbea restaurant at the Gloria Palace San Agustín Thalasso & Hotel will host an eight-handed dinner with four young rural chefs who have lit the fuse of renewal in the kitchens of small villages. Four Michelin-starred restaurants: Iris Jordán (Ansils*, Anciles, Huesca, Aragón); Juan Carlos García (Vandelvira*, Baeza, Jaén, Andalusia); Xune Andrade (Monte*, San Feliz, Pola de Lena, Asturias); and Alejandro Hernández (Versátil*, Zarza de Granadilla, Cáceres, Extremadura). 

On Tuesday morning, the guests will be taken to a very special breakfast in a completely rural setting: the La Gloria cheese factory, which has one of the largest herds on the island, with almost 2,100 goats of the native Canarian breed. There they will learn about the work of José Miguel Ortega and his wife Paqui Pérez, who have taken over from their parents the tradition of making goat's cheese on this farm in the stony and now parched lands of Amurga.

Atlantic sea bass farming

From there, Terrae will take its expedition to the pontoons of Puerto Rico, where the group will embark to visit the Aquanaria facilities in the Atlantic Ocean, two miles from the port of Castillo del Romeral, where they will be able to observe the cages in which the large Atlantic sea bass are raised in the open sea. At midday, the catamaran Princesa Ico will become a floating restaurant, offering gastronomic proposals by Nelsón Pérez of the Nelsón fish restaurant (Playa de Arinaga) and the promising young chefs Marina Tudanca and Alejandro Sosa of Maraca (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria). On board, you will be able to taste different sea bass dishes, as well as other local products, such as tomatoes from the southeast of the Canary Islands. 

And from the sea and fish to meat, with the last of the gastronomic experiences. The closing event of Terrae will take place in the evening at the grills of La Pasadilla restaurant in Ingenio, with a unique and unprecedented dinner. For one night, it will be the best steak restaurant in Spain and the second best in the world on the list of the 101 best steak restaurants in the world (Bodega El Capricho, Jiménez de Jamuz, León). Its owner and chef, José Gordón, together with the young Gran Canarian chef Carmelo González, will offer guests a menu based on the products of his own livestock in his rural restaurant, located in the middle of the municipality of Ingenio, in a village of barely 150 inhabitants.

A cattle farmer and master grill chef, Gordon is the fourth generation of a family whose ancestors exploited the resources of the area where his restaurant is located, in Tierra de Jamuz (León). In the eighties, the decline of the ox as a working animal in the fields caught the attention of Gordon, who was seduced by the elegance and nobility of these animals, around which he has built an important business group. A visit to El Capricho is more than just a chance to taste the best meat in the world, according to critics from prestigious publications such as The Guardian and The Times.