It was revealed this Tuesday at San Sebastian Gastronomika that Chinchín Puerto, a restaurant in Caleta de Vélez (Málaga) that specialises in fish, has won the 3rd National Russian Salad Competition - San Miguel.

Using ‘coloradillo’ to make the mayonnaise, Chinchin Puerto's salad beat the dishes submitted by its eight opponents: Surtopía, Bar Fénix, Hidalgo 56, Bar Nerva, La Guisandera de Piñera, Pan de Cuco, Petit Comité and Xerta Tapas.

Chinchin Puerto takes over from Candado Golf, also in Malaga, which won the competition at the previous edition.

Malaga has got something going with salad. The exclusive, well-run seafood restaurant in Caleta de Vélez, Chinchín Puerto, has won the final of the 3rd National Russian Salad Competition - San Miguel, as announced this Tuesday by the San Sebastian Gastronomika - Euskadi Basque Country congress. The restaurant, which is run by Lourdes Villalobos, takes over as the home of Spain's best salad from Candado Golf, another temple of the product, also located in the province of Malaga. In 2018, at the first edition of the competition, the title went to Tapas 24 in Barcelona. The Mediterranean knows about oil.

Chinchin Puerto won with a salad made with a mayonnaise based on coloradillo, which was accompanied by a combination of very finely chopped raw onion, blanched carrot brunoise, egg white and the bodies of the transparent goby crowning the ensemble. It was an outpouring of creativity in the guise of simplicity that represents the style of the restaurant very well and which impressed a jury made up of specialist journalists and chaired by chef Pedro Subijana. Akelarre's finest acknowledged “the diversity of dishes presented”, although he warned before starting that “a salad is a salad, and there are flavours that must be recognised”.

That was how the participants were reminded of the rules when the competition was held in July at the Basque Culinary Center in San Sebastian. As a result of the pandemic, the final was brought forward and the teams from the restaurants, all selected by a team of gastronomic experts, travelled with all the necessary safety measures to San Sebastian. The restaurants cooked and the jury tasted and voted, and their verdict was announced today.

So, Chinchín Puerto is home to the best Russian salad in Spain, the only tapa - with the exception of Spanish omelette - common to the whole country. Behind it, according to the jury, were Surtopía (Madrid), Bar Fénix (Murcia), Hidalgo 56 (San Sebastian), Bar Nerva (Malaga), La Guisandera de Piñera (Madrid), Pan de Cuco (Suesa, Cantabria), Petit Comité (Barcelona) and Xerta Tapas (Barcelona).