Beltrán Alonso, chef at Casa Mories, winner of the WOOE Salad Challenge

Beltrán Alonso, chef at the Casa Mories restaurant in Madrid, has won first prize in the WOOE Challenge, the second edition of the Castilla-La Mancha EVOO Salad Competition held in Madrid, as part of the World Olive Oil Exhibition. Sponsored by Campo y Alma, the guarantee brand for products with Protected Designation of Origin and Protected Geographical Indication of La Mancha, the event was attended by ten chefs who had to prepare a salad. The essential requirement was that they had to use one or a mixture of Extra Virgin Olive Oils from the PDO Aceites de la Alcarria, Campo de Calatrava, Campo de Montiel and Montes de Toledo and PDO Manchego Cheese.

"I have made a very simple salad with a base of Manchego cheese foam, dressed tomato and smoked sardines," commented Beltrán Alonso. "To make it, I used Cornicabra oil from the Montes de Toledo DO, simply because I'm from there and the land, it's a land that pulls", concluded the winning chef of the competition. Elena Escobar, Director General of Food of the Junta de Castilla-La Mancha, was in charge of awarding the prize of 1,500 euros.

The second prize went to Camacho from the Gijón restaurant Zascandil, who received the award from Otilia Romero de Condes, CEO of the WOOE. Miguel Ángel León, territorial director of Globalcaja, was in charge of presenting the accesit to the chef of the Fijo restaurant, Fidel Meza.

Presented by the expert food journalist Concha Crespo, in this second edition of the WOOE Challenge the jury was made up of Elena Escobar, Director General of Food of the Castilla-La Mancha Regional Government; Enrique Escobar, chef of the restaurant El Doncel (Guadalajara), Alicia Rivas, the influencer behind La Recomendadora and Patricia Magaña, editor of Origen Magazine and Álvaro Madrid, chef of La Soga (Ciudad Real). 

In this second edition of the Salad Competition, in addition to the award winners, the following restaurants were present: Cocina34, Portal Bajo, Restaurante Alilian, Amore Gastrobar, Quinta Cocina, El Pedrusco de Aldealcorvo and Piscomar.

WOOE

The World Olive Oil Exhibition is the international meeting of reference for producers and buyers in the olive sector held in Spain. The ninth edition took place on 8 and 9 March 2022 in Hall 1 of the IFEMA MADRID exhibition centre. The event was co-organised by POMONA KEEPERS and IFEMA MADRID and sponsored by Globalcaja.