01 June 2026
Share
“If we had to be reborn, without a doubt, we would choose Granada again.” This is the mission statement of Faralá (One MICHELIN Star), the restaurant with which Cristina Jiménez Rueda has shaken up the gastronomy of her city.
Faralá isn’t bluffing: It’s as Granadan as it gets, from its name, an homage to the ruffles on flamenco dresses, to its location on the Cuesta de Gomérez by the entrance to the Alhambra gardens. And of course this is also reflected in its food. In her three menus — Whispers of Sacromonte, The Magic of Albayzín and Alborán — Jiménez displays all her talent and imagination, reinterpreting classics such as the deconstructed Sacromonte tortilla or the remojón granadino (orange, olive and salt cod salad), always using local products like Huétor peas or Segureño lamb.
Not so long ago, talking about Granada’s cuisine meant almost exclusively talking about tapas. But Jiménez has been one of the key figures responsible for the city’s rise in recent years as a significant gastronomic destination, not only within Andalusia but also nationally.
“Granada has taken a qualitative leap,” she says. “It’s beginning to consolidate a solid foundation based on the exceptional level of its chefs and on concepts that champion a cuisine that is genuine and regional, with a strong sense of identity.”
To fully immerse himself in this vibrant scene and follow all of Jiménez’s recommendations to the letter, Chef Koosh Kothari traveled from the Netherlands to Andalusia. He, too, grew up immersed in a culinary culture with a strong character. Born in Gujarat, India, he moved to Peru with his family at age 13, where he grew up surrounded by street food like tiraditos and anticuchos as well as the curries and masalas of his first home.
Since 2019 he has been head chef at Nazka in Amsterdam, where he surprises diners with a creative Peruvian-Indian fusion made with local ingredients.
Granada as a Microcosm
The view of the Alhambra with the Sierra Nevada in the background is the first thing Jiménez shows Kothari. Besides being one of her favorite spots, she says it’s the one that best represents “the history, culture and essence” of the province.From there, she explains that Granada is, above all, a place of contrast: snow, fertile plains and sea. “In just a few kilometers, you go from the Costa Tropical, with Motril and Salobreña, to the Sierra Nevada, which makes for a very diverse pantry, with fresh fish and seafood, meats, mushrooms and high-altitude products. This territory, where the sea and the mountains coexist with the historical influence of Al-Andalus, translates into a rich, diverse cuisine with a strong personality,” Jiménez points out.
Heritage You Can Smell and Touch
The Andalusian tradition is no myth: You can see and smell it throughout the city — especially in corners like Calderería, the famous street of tea shops, or the old Cancillería, with its narrow, souk-like streets and shops selling sweets, crafts, Moroccan tea, teapots and honey. It’s also obvious in long-established businesses like Especias Barranco, a Granada institution opened in the 1930s, where traditional spices and teas are sold in bulk.The influence of so many years of coexistence between cultures has deeply permeated the city’s gastronomy. Here, food is cooked slowly, ingredients are hand-ground with mortars and pestles, pickling is common and combinations of sweet and sour flavors are ubiquitous. There isn’t a recipe that doesn’t include a touch of cumin, a few leaves of coriander or some strands of saffron. The same is true of nuts and aromatic herbs like mint and spearmint, which add a refreshing touch.
From this heritage come dishes like remojón granadino, fried eggplant with honey and Granada pastilla, an adaptation of the Moroccan version filled with chicken, onion, raisins, pine nuts, spices and a touch of orange blossom water — all of which captivated Kothari.
Alongside these dishes, the menus of the city’s restaurants feature specialties from different parts of the province, such as plato alpujarreño (a rustic dish of ham, chorizo and potato), broad beans with Trévelez ham and a fried egg, and migas (a dish made from chorizo and breadcrumbs). Desserts like cuajada de carnaval, (a chilled dessert made from cream, angel hair jam, almonds and shortbread crumbs), Alpujarra meringues, and torta real de Motril (an almond and meringue cake) are also popular, as are San Jerónimo puff pastries.
The Prawn: From the Sea to the Plate
To show him the contrasts of her province, Jiménez takes Kothari to the Port of Motril, where one of her favorite ingredients is caught: the Motril prawn. “It’s a delicate product, very much linked to seasonality and the fisherman’s expertise, an important part of our identity,” she says. Besides these prawns, octopus, red mullet, cuttlefish and squid also come from this area, and are found in most of the beach bars along the Costa Tropical (and in the capital as well).In fact, one of the best places to sample these delicacies is FM: More than just a bar, it’s a veritable temple to seafood, frequented by both chefs and discerning diners. Run for 40 years by Francisco Martín and Rosa Macías, its counter resembles that of a jewelry store, where the day’s catch and shellfish fresh from the fish market are displayed like precious gems.
There, Kothari experienced one of the great discoveries of his trip: the absolute centrality of the product. “FM isn’t a restaurant, it’s an institution where the product is everything,” he explains. “I come from India and Peru, where sofrito, spices and hot peppers predominate — resources that sometimes end up masking the raw ingredients. I had heard about this philosophy many times, but experiencing it firsthand has been something completely new for me,” he confesses.
High-Altitude Wines
From the coast, Jiménez and Kothari venture inland towards Toral, a high-altitude winery located in a unique landscape next to the Sierra Nevada mountains. There, Pablo Toral and Noelia Lucena — two engineers with no prior winemaking experience — ventured to plant vines at more than 3,280 feet (1,000 meters) above sea level.The vineyard covers barely 10 acres (four hectares) of clay soil, where they cultivate up to 10 grape varieties. Subjected to freezing winters and summers exceeding 104 F (40 C), these grapes experience large temperature swings — conditions that give them a distinctive character and intensity.
From this raw material, Toral produces about 10 different wines. Of all of them, Kothari’s favorite was Abuelolito, a cabernet sauvignon with a lot of character, produced from the grapes of the oldest plot and in a limited edition of just 100 bottles: a tribute to the family’s grandfather.
“I had already tasted some high-altitude wines, but I can’t consider the Toral vineyard just another one, because what Pablo and Noelia do there is unlike any other project: They meticulously care for the grapes, the land and the processes to intervene as little as possible, and that is clearly reflected in the final result.”
New Granadan Cuisine
Before returning to the city, Jiménez and Kothari visited Elysium, an unexpected restaurant in the small town of Melegís in the heart of the Lecrín Valley. The project is located in the charming boutique hotel of the same name, surrounded by orange and olive groves that overlook the Sierra Nevada mountains.There, Chef Michael Sandoval, an American of Mexican descent, offers a contemporary and worldly cuisine. “What Michael is doing here is truly admirable — adapting to a place completely foreign to him and fighting tirelessly to bring his art to fruition,” explains Kothari.
With All Due Respect
Back in Granada, Kothari and Jiménez cooked together at Faralá, incorporating a touch of each of the places they had visited. Jiménez prepared her Motril prawns with blood orange from the Lecrín Valley and raf tomato gazpacho — a dish in which the shellfish is served practically raw to highlight its briny flavor, contrasting with the citrus acidity of the orange and the sweetness of the tomato.Kothari, for his part, prepared a ceviche with raf tomato leche de tigre, the acidic marinade that can be used to cure raw fish. “With this product, you don’t have to do anything to it, just gently caress it and present it to the diner almost as is.”
From his trip to Granada, accompanied by Jiménez, Kothari has not only taken away a few recipes and a great experience, but also a new way of understanding cuisine.
“What I’ve seen is the immense pride that people here feel for what they do. This extends from the supplier to the chef: a common thread that transmits all that passion. There is great mutual respect. Where I come from — and I’m not just talking about the Netherlands, but also Peru and India — diners don’t always know exactly where the product comes from, who raised it, cultivated it or caught it. There are regions of the world that could learn a lot from Andalusian gastronomy.”
Read More:
Hero image: Koosh Kothari, chef of Nazka in Amsterdam, and Cristina Jiménez Rueda at Faralá, the restaurant she runs. © Michelin Guide
