Lunch at Arrels

Chef Vicky Sevilla is one of a growing number of women scooping up stars on the Valencia food scene

We hopped on the snail-slow regional train this month for lunch at Arrels in Sagunto. The restaurant in the old stables of a 16th century mansion is led by Vicky Sevilla, the youngest woman to win a Michelin star in Spain.

Sevilla said that when she was 17 she couldn't fry an egg. By 25 she had opened Arrels and at 29 was awarded a Michelin star.

Arrels doesn’t put its menu online, so it’s all a surprise when you get there.

The first surprise for me was a white asparagus ice cream topped with smoked baby peas and shoots, as pictured in the slightly blurry photo below (portrait mode is not my friend). I’m not a massive fan of white asparagus, something I kept quiet about when I lived in Germany as they worship it and yell at you for suggesting it’s overrated. However, this combination of sweetness, a tickle of bitterness and a whiff of smoke was the business, and will be the dish I remember most.

“We rely a lot on the season,” Sevilla told Vanity Fair in 2023. “If it's the best time for mushrooms, we serve mushrooms, and if it's the best time for sea urchins, we serve urchins…It's not easy to do this, of course, but it forces us to keep an open mind when creating dishes.” 

The eight-course menu was all perfectly balanced flavours, textures and combinations. Nothing shouty, it just hung together beautifully. The other standouts were mussel mousseline and seaweed pickle folded into a sliver of aged picaña beef at the table and a celeriac flan in suckling pig jus with a pile of fluffy Galmesano (parmesan-style cheese from Galicia). 

I’ve been digging around for some data on women chefs running top restaurants in Spain. A 2022 survey by food magazine Chef’s Pencil found that Spain had the highest percentage of Michelin-starred restaurants led by women among the 16 countries they surveyed — 11%. That’s quite a bit above the 6% average but still very low considering women make up 55% of kitchen staff in Spain, according to the Women in Gastronomy Association.

Here in Valencia province we’re seeing a growing number of women-led restaurants winning Michelin stars and Guia Repsol suns. There’s Begoña Rogriguez at La Salita in Ruzafa, who does incredible things with fermentation and local produce in a stunning old villa in the Ruzafa barrio. 

Pioneers like Susi Díaz at La Finca in Elche and María José San Román at Monastrell in Alicante have been on the scene for years. Roseta Félix’s Fraula, María José Martínez’s Lienzo and Carito Lourenço’s Fierro are also cooking up a storm. 

That’s a wishlist! Meanwhile, it’s back to the pan con tomate for me.