The 59th edition of the International Valencian Paella Contest of Sueca kicks off from the United States
The American capital, Washington DC, receives for the fourth time the semifinal of Sueca’s contest in the US.
Sueca starts cooking the 59th edition of the Internacional Valencian Paella Contest far way from home, at the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Washington has been chosen as the starting point for Spain’s international gastronomic contest with the occassion of the 4th edition of United State’s semifinal. The competition, which has been held this Sunday 19th of May, has been organized with the collaboration of Washington’s Spanish center and la Casa de Valencia in Washington. Paella Fest is the event in which the competition took place, an event dedicated to Spanish culture and gastronomy, with an assistance of more than 6,000 people. The participants of the competition of the authentic paella have attended from California, Leo Razo; South Carolina, Francisco López; Adán Ventura, from Texas; Luis Raúl Salgado, from Florida; Nicholas Pulleti, from Louisiana; Bernardo Pérez, from New Jersey; Jaime Pelayo, from Mexico; Jesús Romero, from Los Angeles; Elisa María González, from New Jersey; Alejandro Aayon, from Virginia and the valencian, who lives in Washington, Danny Lledó, and Cesar Mayorga from México, to mention some of them.
The winner of the authentic Valencian paella and gold medal has been Jaime Pelayo, a chef who represents the University Ana G Méndez and its art cooking program. The second place and silver medal, Bernardo Pérez, and the bronze medal was for Danny Lledó, owner of Slate restaurant. In the freestyle category, the winner has been Danny Lledó, second place for Cesar Mayorga chef of a prestigious restaurant La Taberna del Alabardero, and the third place was for Jesús Romero, proprietary of Social Paella Catering of Los Angeles.
The professional chef, Jesus Melero, held two master classes, one for the chefs who had assisted and another one in the art cooking department of the University Ana G Méndez of the Campus of Washington DC.
All the assistants, sponsors, and cooks agreed on the importance of holding this kind of events which communicate the authenticity of our culture and traditional dishes.
Third digital semifinal
In a parallel way, the contest is celebrating its third digital edition in social media. The challenge is exclusively for professional chefs. It consists on publishing in the Facebook group, Paella y Arroces, with the elaboration of a Valencian paella, step by step, valuing positively the incorporation of a video and/or a photo with the cooker, always with the hashtag #concursodigitalpaella. The objective and the prize is a direct participation in the big final of the International Valencian Paella Contest of Sueca, that will take place the 15th of September in the capital of la Ribera Baixa. The challenge started the third of may and it will finish at 12 AM the next 31st of May. The winner of the contest will be published the 3rd of June.