Four restaurateurs proudly show off the cuisine from the city in Castile and León and demonstrate their skills in the kitchen. For the past 15 years, it has been home to the National Pinchos and Tapas Competition, and miniature cuisine abounds in all of its establishments.

The most populous city in Castile and León, Valladolid has become a gastronomic icon in recent years. Home to the renowned National Pinchos and Tapas Competition, now in its 16th year, and the World Tapas Championship, now in its 3rd year, Valladolid has made a commitment to miniature cuisine and its inhabitants and chefs have helped. Hundreds of bars and restaurants support this success and offer visitors a range that combines perfectly with an environment that brings together as many as five designations of origin: Ribera del Duero, Cigales, Rueda, Toro and León.

The city as a whole is devoted to gastronomy, as five of its best ambassadors demonstrated at San Sebastian Gastronomika - Euskadi Basque Country, five chefs who showcased their creations from the Mercado del Val. “Our cuisine wants to have fun through the possibilities provided by pinchos. They are mouthfuls of happiness”, explained Emilio Martín, from Suite 22, who prepared one of his star pinchos, the ‘Cayetano’, “to show that Valladolid is not a city of snobs”, he went on. Winner of the recent Castile and León Pinchos Competition, the 'Cayetano' is an English muffin grilled in butter and filled with veal oxtail stew, soya sauce, sriracha sauce and tartar sauce. The snack is accompanied by the juice of the same stew and finished off with the very visual splendour of a ‘mole poblano’ (mole sauce).

Antonio González, from Los Zagales, is another of the city’s great ambassadors. Winner of the 6th National Pinchos Competition with his creation 'Tigretostón', a culinary tribute to the legendary little cake made, in this case, with black bread, black pudding, red onion and fried plantain peel. For the congress, he cooked a tapa - a trompe l'oeil of a cigar made of filo pastry filled with chopped vegetables, with its ash made of Maltodextrin with black sesame and a glass of what in theory is a liqueur, in this case made of water mixed with tomato and basil. A complete trompe l'oeil that shows the fun and gastronomy of Valladolid.

José Castrodeza, from Viña Paramesa, followed this with a confit of boned suckling pig, presented in the form of a filo pastry ingot. It was topped with three sauces "to open up the city to the world in three bites". The sauces were ajoblanco, representing Spain, ponzu sauce, representing Japan, and pibil sauce (annatto sauce), representing South America. To finish, the tapa sits on a support that resembles a book. The snapshot of Valladolid's current gastronomic scene was rounded off by Palmira Soler, chef at 5 Gustos.  The Levante-born chef prepared a ‘coca’ (a type of Iberian pizza) on which she added five ingredients: smoked cod roe, lemon, dairy products, sun-dried cherry tomatoes and pickled chives. “It is a three-bite tapa, in each of which you will find the five flavours”, she explained. As the cod roe are from Norway, the tapa is presented on a support covered with mist, simulating the Nordic area where the cod spawns.

Five examples of miniature magic, five examples of Valladolid playing in the world's first division of gastronomy. The fact that it is in miniature form just gives it added value and makes it more fun.