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If torrezno is one of your favorite traditional tapas, you should know that its best version is made in Zaragoza. Specifically in Café Chicago, an authentic institution of Castilian cuisine in the heart of the city center, with almost half a century of history.
The annual contest carried out by the Mara de Garantía Torrezno de Soria has already revealed its winners for the 2024 edition. And, for the first time in more than a decade, the winner is outside the town of Soria, the place of origin where this crunchy tapa wrapped in a golden crust is made.
The contest
A cast of 23 participants from different parts of Spain presented their creations in this edition staged in Burgo de Osma on March 10. There they displayed their interpretations of the torrezno that the jury tasted blind. The jury evaluated a series of aspects such as presentation, flavor, texture, juiciness and the lean part, with a proportion of meat and bacon.
Among all of them, the torreznos from Café Chicago stood out for, as they expressed from the contest, ‘entering through the eyes and leading to the peak of flavor in each piece’. Beyond that, the Calvo brothers, in charge of cooking this star dish, delved into their secret formula.
The secret is to make them slowly, with a special care, airing well the raw material, that is to say, the bacon from Soria, and always fresh, before starting the cooking and knowing when to change the temperatures of the sunflower oil, because first you have to poach them so that the lean is very mellow, and then give the temperature very strong to raise the crust and that this becomes crispy and without the lean is burned’, they explain. The brothers say that to get good torreznos you have to be a master of orchestra and a choreographer in front of the frying pan.
