The jury of the Cervantes Gastronomic Award, meeting this week and at the proposal of Alcalá Gastronómica-Fomentur, has unanimously granted the award to journalist María Zarzalejos. This award seeks to honor relevant personalities in the national and international gastronomic world, aiming to contribute to tourism and cultural development and promote the city of Alcalá de Henares, its culture, and its gastronomy.
The award ceremony will take place during the gala of the Gastronomic Contest, organized by the Department of Tourism, on September 29. The jury was chaired by the first deputy mayor and councilor for Tourism, Isabel Ruiz Maldonado, and included representatives from the political groups Popular (Gustavo Severien), Vox (Víctor Manuel Acosta), Socialist (María Aranguren), as well as the president of the Alcalá Gastronomic Association, José Valdearcos, and the president of the Tourism commission of the Association of Entrepreneurs of Henares (AEDHE), Olivia Reina.
Deputy Mayor Isabel Ruiz Maldonado congratulated Zarzalejos for “this well-deserved recognition for a lifetime dedicated to gastronomy, culture, and the dissemination of our culinary heritage.” She added that the award recognizes “not only your extraordinary career as a gastronomic journalist and writer, but also your way of understanding and transmitting gastronomy as an expression of our history, our literature, our territories, and our traditions.”
María Zarzalejos has dedicated her life to gastronomy as cultural heritage, standing out for her rigor, excellence, and commitment to Spanish cuisine. She is considered one of the country's leading gastronomic journalists, having transformed gastronomy into a true cultural expression that unites cuisine, history, literature, and territory. Author of fourteen books, she has received awards such as the Alimentos de España Award and the Literary Award from the International Academy of Gastronomy.
Her work has significantly contributed to disseminating and enhancing Spanish gastronomy internationally, bridging gastronomy, literature, and history, particularly through publications like Don Quijote Gastronómico and her collaboration with the Cervantes Institute. Zarzalejos has effectively conveyed the value of gastronomy as living cultural heritage, strengthening Spain's gastronomic identity.
For her established career, professional excellence, innovation in gastronomic dissemination, influence in the sector, and decisive contribution to the national and international prestige of Spanish gastronomy, María Zarzalejos fully embodies the values that inspire the Cervantes Gastronomic Award, making her a candidate of extraordinary merit for this edition.
The journalist succeeds other prominent figures in Gastronomy and Wine Culture with this award, including Isabel Mijares (2017), Rafael Ansón (2018), Mario Sandoval (2019), Isabel Maestre (2021), Pepe Hidalgo (2022), Toño Pérez (2023), Custodio López (2024), and Pepa Muñoz (2025).
