Olive Press Mallorca Issue 141

How this ‘Famous Five’ of Northern Spanish chefs have helped to topple the French from their culinary throne -

page 14

INVADE THE EMBASSY

HUNDREDS of angry expats are threatening to ‘invade’ the British embassy next week.

They are converging from all over Spain in a protest to demand action over their inability to drive here due to Brexit changes.

The group - including mostly long term residents - are furious the Brit ish and Spanish governments seem unable to strike the most basic deal. Meanwhile, expats in almost every other European country have been given the right to swap their licences for local ones.

“It is totally unfair and really disgust ing that Spanish residents are being trapped in a game that has nothing to do with our ability to drive,” said

By Simon Hunter

Scott Rattray, who lives in Lloret de Mar.

“All the other countries managed to not treat their foreign residents like this.”

Another victim, Tom Kington, based in rural Valencia, added: “The fact there is speculation that this may be linked to the future of Gibraltar is atrocious.

real lives and not pawns in some political game.” Negotiations over the movement of workers and trade across the Spain-Gibraltar border are now in their second year and are bogged down in legal issues.

A Facebook group titled ‘Invasion of the British embassy in Madrid’ has pencilled in October 13 for a protest outside the embassy in northern Madrid.

dozens of letters to their MPs back in the UK and politicians in Spain, as well as backing the Olive Press U-Turn campaign we launched in June. So far demands to Spain’s DGT traf fic authority have gone unanswered, while the British embassy itself has

Continues on Page 4

Sniffing success

A SNIFFER dog found a missing elderly man unharmed. He had fall en when out for a walk in Muro on Wednesday and laid undetected from 4pm to midnight.

Gang war

A MAN who shot and seriously injured a woman during a gang fight in Las Maravil las claims he can not remember anything as he had taken ‘a lot of cocaine’. He has been remanded in custody.

Jesus!

POLICE have clocked a 37-year-old woman rid ing her motorbike at 124 kph in a 50kph zone along a stretch of the Camino de Jesus in Palma.

Fake arrests

POLICE have seized €300 million worth of coun terfeit goods in a massive five-tonne haul making 17 arrests during raids on 14 bazaars, four stores and three homes in the Canary Islands and Madrid.

A MAN who had been ticked off by his wife for losing too much money on slot machines whacked her over the head with a saucepan. She was left unconscious on the bathroom floor of their Son Gotleu home but, despite that, the attack continued, with him drag ging her by the hair to the bedroom.

The violent assault only stopped when the couple’s two young daughters - whose ages have not been released by police - pushed

SLOTS ROW

their way in front of him and kept him away from their mother.

The victim, 48, suffered significant injuries and required seven suture staples to her head as a result of the attack.

He was arrested after his wife made a com plaint to police.

BRUTAL KILLING

A GROUP of Dutch men sus pected of brutally killing a tourist in Mallorca last year have all denied laying the fa tal blow.

Four of nine suspects went before a judge this week in the trial of two brawls that led to the death of 27-yearold Carlo Huevelman (pic tured) in July last year. They told a Dutch court they were only involved in the first brawl with the victim,

Trial of Dutchmen involved in fatal brawls starts

By Anthony Piovesan

and denied any involvement in the second, which led to the man’s death.

The first brawl started inside nightclub De Zaak at the seaside resort of El Arenal on July 14.

Beach cash

A PAIR of beach bed attendants pocketed €21,000 for them selves in just one summer.

Now the pair have accepted sixmonth jail terms, which will be suspended provided they pay back the cash.

The duo worked at a chirin guito in Calvia, where they were responsible for collecting money for lounger and parasol rentals.

Later in the night a second fight spilled out onto the street.

Huevelman died in hospital four days later from his in juries.

One of the suspects Kaan B, 19, told the court he arrived from another bar to help his friends who had got into an

argument with Heu velman.

The offences date back to 2009. Their scheme was rum bled when a manager saw that all 169 loungers were occu pied, but the computer system showed only 140 as having been rented.

The company hired a detec tive who watched the pair for a month. He spotted them keep the takings from about 20 sunbeds a day.

Another suspect, Hein B, 19, also claimed to have only played a role in the first brawl and told the judge it was the ‘stupid est mistake’ of his life.

A third sus

pect, Daan Van S, 19, told the court he joined in on the second fight and kicked Heuvelman twice after he had hit the ground.

He then received a blow to the head and did not know what happened to Huev elman after that, the judge heard.

Two other suspects told the court they punched Huev elman and kicked him with the inside of their feet ‘as if you were playing football’, but denied laying any fatal blows in the second fight.

Five of the nine suspects are suspected of attempted manslaughter.

Boat death

POLICE are investigating af ter one man died and another suffered serious leg injuries when their inflatable boat crashed into rocks off For mentera at 3.45am yesterday.

The seven-metre long craft was carrying five Dutch peo ple aged between 24 and 48 when the incident happened at Punta Gavina.

A man aged 35 died from a heart attack at the scene and another, aged 48, was airlift ed to Can Misses hospital in Ibiza after suffering a serious leg injury.

The remainder of the group suffered mild injuries and were treated in Formentera.

The Guardia Civil has opened an investigation into what the group were doing on the small craft in the middle of the night.

Just wrong

PROSECUTORS are calling for an 87-year-old man suffering from dementia to be jailed after he drove 18 kilometres in the wrong direction on the Ma-15 dual carriageway.

He had left Son Llatzer hospi tal in Palma in his blue Renault Kangoo but missed two no en try signs to head the wrong way.

Police were alerted by other drivers who had to swerve out of his way, and officers finally managed to pull him over.

Despite the fact the driver was suffering from the onset of se nile dementia, the prosecutor is asking for a 15-month jail term and three-year driving ban.

Head turner

AMERICAN super model Emily Ratajk kowski has been turn ing heads in Mallorca. The 31-year-old, who has been linked to Brad Pitt, has posted a se ries of photos on Ins tagram as she relives childhood visits to the island.

Emily, born in London to American parents, was a regular visitor up until the age of 14. She was a child star, acting in Nickelode on series iCarly from 2009 to 2010.

At the beginning of September, Ratajkowski filed for divorce from the film producer Sebastian Bear- McClard after be ing together for more than four years.

The supermodel has an astound ing 30 million followers on Ins tagram, the plat form on which she shared pic tures of herself.

San Sebastian film festival’s 70th edition included scores of films and attracted stars of the calibre of Liam Neeson and Ana de Armas

By Simon Hunter

THE San Sebastián Film Festi val has come a long way since its first edition, 70 years ago.

Back then, in 1953, it hosted just 19 movies and was viewed as an event for the elite. Fast forward to 2022, and the event not only included hundreds of films in and out of compe tition, but also attracted stars of the calibre of Liam Neeson and Ana de Armas (pictured below).

The event is held every year in the stunning Basque seaside city, and even managed to con tinue during the coronavirus pandemic. This year’s edition, however, was the first that marked a proper return to postCovid normality.

The winner of the Golden Shell award for Best Film went to The Kings

Here’s looking at you

HONORED: David Cronenberg

of the World, a Colombian dra ma from director Laura Mora, while Argentina, 1985 from di rector Santiago Mitre took the audience award. The Best Di rector gong was taken by Genki Kawarmura from Japan, for his debut feature Hyakka In attendance for the premiere of her Marilyn Monroe biopic Blonde, Ana de Armas caught the attention of the public and press alike on the red carpet.

At a press conference, she ex plained how she ‘did things in this movie I would have never done for anyone else, ever. I did it for her’, she said, in ref erence to Monroe.

The festival closed with the

premiere of Marlowe, both of whose stars, Diane Kruger and Liam Neeson, were in atten dance in the Basque city. Set in 1930s Los Angeles, the film is directed by Neil Jordan. “To make a film like this, you have to reinvent the image,” Jordan told a press conference at the festival. “The reference I chose was Blade Runner, which is set in LA in the future. I’m making a film set in LA in the past, but somehow it’s a sci-fi film.”

The lifetime achievement award went this year to Cana dian filmmaker David Cronen berg, with a screening of his latest film Crimes of the Future after the ceremony.

Legend

Queen of Hugs

PRINCESS Di may have been known as the Queen of Hearts, but it turns out Letizia is the Queen of Hugs. Spain’s queen was the star attraction at a charity award ceremony at Madrid's Circulo de Bellas Artes when 91-year-old Maruja piped up: “Letizia would you mind giving me a hug?”

Quick as a flash Letizia gave a heart-warming smile and reached out with her arms to comply. An awards presenter had gone to chat to Maruja as she had won an award last year, and Maruja took her chance on the microphone to make her cheeky request.

“I used to think that a lifetime achievement award was a mes sage to me saying ‘It’s time to stop, you’ve made enough films’…” said Cronenberg. “But I have since come to realize and especially with an award like this, at a festival with so much history, given in such a beautiful city, that it really is an encouragement to me to make more films."

Thanks to sentiments such as this one, the legend of the San Sebastián Film Festival contin ues to grow.

The 42 year-old who is the owner of Madrid’s three Michelin starred DiverXo, collected his award in front of several hundred top chefs who had gathered for the event in Spain’s capital.

Accepting the prize he said: “I do not feel like the best chef in the world, far from it. But I believe I have the best team in the world.”

Lady and the scamp

SHE is an aristocrat, half sister to Enrique Iglesias and a TV personality boasting her own Netflix reality series called Lady Tamara

Now a very public split with her businessman fiance has thrust Tamara Falco into the gossip columns.

Falco - the sixth Marchioness of Griñón announced that she was engaged to Iñigo Onieva. But within days a video emerged of him canoodling with a New York model at a music festival in the US. De spite his initial claims the image was from 2019, before he knew 40-year-old Falco, TV sleuths had identified the festival as being held just a few weeks ago.

The TV gossip shows went into meltdown and the saga has barely been off the screens since, with Falco bringing her rela tionship with Onieva to a very public end.

MADRID chef Dabiz Muñoz has scooped the top prize in The Best Chef Awards for the second year running.

See

best

limited its responses to the video updates by ambassa dor Hugh Elliott.

Despite announcing in July that the ‘main text’ of the deal had been agreed, Elliot’s latest message has dashed any hopes that a solution is near.

The latest missive, in which he admits there are a couple of ‘complex’ issues left, has angered the group, which now has over 500 members. “Politics first, people last. It really is indefensible,” Mal colm Weston told the Olive Press this week.

Italy PM dad is con

THE father of Italy’s likely next leader was a drug dealer in Spain.

Frances co Melo ni - whose daughter Giorgia (pic tured) won the recent general elections - was jailed for nine years in Mallorca for traf ficking 1,500 kilos of hashish, the Balearic Islands’ then-big gest drug seizure. He was ar rested after police discovered the drugs on a yacht in 1995.

Meloni had settled in Spain 40 years ago, first in the Canary Islands and then in Mallorca, where he stood for election with the political party Es caños en Blanco.

TOWERING ACHIEVEMENT

MORE than 10,000 people turned out to watch the Tarragona Human Towers Competition, which is the largest of its kind in Spain. The ‘ castells ’, as the towers are known in Catalan, returned this year after a two-year pause due to the pandemic.

Men, women and children participate in the competition, which can prove nail-biting for spectators as the last

participants scale the human towers to the top.

The castells were added to the UNE SCO list of Intangible Cultural Heri tage of Humanity in 2010.

The tradition began in the 18th cen tury in the town of Valls, which is in Tarragona province.

This year a team from Vilafran ca won the competition, taking a €16,000 prize.

Environmental war zone

the Cap Blanc military zone to be preserved has collected 46,000

was handed over to the Medi Ambient environ mental department yester day.

Three members of a fam ily from Palma launched the petition seven months ago after they spotted that the zone had been put up for sale for €3.8 million on property portal Idealista

Although the land has been declared a Natural Area of Special Interest and a Spe cial Protected Zone, the possibility for development is considerable.

This is because of the large meterage of abandoned military buildings that could theoretically be built on with modern develop

HAN D S OFF OUR COSTAS

By Dilip Kuner

ments on the same foot print.

The 46,000 signatures

were handed over by the Grup Balear d’Ornitolo gia (GOB) environmental charity.

It calls on the central and regional governments to guarantee the conservation of the Ministry of Defence estates in the Balearic Is lands that are no longer in military use.

Toni Muñoz, spokesman for the GOB, explained that ‘it is difficult to know what situation the military zone is in and who the current owner is’.

He added: “We don’t know who put the property up for sale: whether it was the Ministry of Defence itself or a private individual who has already taken posses sion of the property.

“Similarly, the military zone of Rafalbetx, in Cal via, has been fenced off. We

do not know who is respon sible for this action.”

Muñoz continued: “There are areas of the Balearic Islands in the hands of the Ministry of Defence that clearly no longer have any military use or interest.

Concern

“We propose that these areas should continue in public ownership. They could be transferred to the Ministry of Ecological Transition and the latter could cede their use to the Autonomous Community.”

The Cap Blanc military zone is described in its list ing on Idealista as a prop erty sitting on 8.24 hect ares of land with a built-up area of 470 square metres, as well as a bunker of 2,000 square metres.

Island scorcher

MALLORCA has registered one of the hottest months on record in September.

According to the Palma Met Office the average temperature last month for the Balearic Is land was 24.3 degrees celsius, 2.2 degrees higher than normal.

Puerta Pollensa was the hottest place in Mallorca, registering a maximum temperature of 37 degrees on September 12.

The coldest day of the month was September 30, where Escorca recorded a mini mum overnight low of just 6.3 degrees.

A spokesperson for the Palma Met Office described Septem ber as a month of ‘two seasons’ for Mallorca.

“During the first two weeks it was summer-like weather which turned to autumn in the last two weeks,” he said.

The Balearic islands are also set for a warmer than usual winter ahead.

Weather experts forecast warmer conditions along the Mediterranean coast, with the Balearic islands to be the balmi est place in the country.

Oldest man dies

SPAIN’S oldest man has died at the age of 110.

Antonio Alvarado passed away in the province of León where he lived with his three brothersIsaac, aged 100, Emilio (95) and Luis (90). He has been the oldest man in Spain since the death in Janu ary of Saturnino de la Fuente, who was 112.

Alvarado was the former mayor of the Leon town of Cremenes between 1987 and 1995. He was the third child in a fam ily of 15 siblings, and worked as a shepherd, a miner and as a police officer. He had six chil dren.

Spain’s oldest person is Maria Branyas, from Catalunya, who turned 115 years old in March.

Petition calls for old army coastal installation to be preserved after it goes up for sale at €3.8mn

PROTECTION: Muñoz (inset) wants the area saved

Simple things that can make customers feel

And many extra benefits,

Get out the slow lane

THE cruel drip-feeding of hope to thousands of strand ed British license holders in Spain needs to stop.

The group of long-term legal residents have been left unable to take to the roads since May 1 because of Brexit bureaucracy, and they deserve an answer now!

Ambassador Hugh Elliot reassured Brits back in July that a deal with Spain was ‘very close to being final ised’.

Now, it emerges there are various complex issues STILL at stake.

It’s time Spanish and UK officials take responsibility for the mess which will see hundreds of angry drivers protest outside the British embassy on October 13 de manding answers.

The true sad irony is that many people who desperately want to attend may not be able to… because they can not get there by car!

Buen provecho

SPAIN has tipped Italy and France into a grinder in the latest global chef poll.

With 19 Spanish chefs coming in the top 100, it left room for just 15 Italians and a paltry 10 Gallic cooks. With 150 professionals and 200 international chefs making the picks, this is a true industry award and a hard one for the vaunted French chefs to brush off. While the Italians will sit back and remain pleased with their Number One position for food tourism, the French will be understandably scratching their heads.

Spain’s sheer diversity in the food stakes, the creativity of its chefs and the way its godfathers have meted out their skills, is something to be celebrated.

As the Spanish did with their national football team, their current tennis crop and their road and railway building (see feature right), they have darn well made their restaurant industry the envy of the world.

THE REAL QUEEN OF

The arrest of Ronda’s homegrown blondehaired drug boss made primetime TV. No suprises as Maria del Mar settles back into life behind bars, Sorrel Downer takes a look at previous episodes in this true-life telenovela

THE Queen of the South is glamorous Te resa Mendoza, who rises from poverty to run a multimillion-euro drug empire from Marbella.

The Queen of Ronda is 39-year-old Maria del Mar Mellado, who rises from boredom to run an international drug ring in the sleepy Cadiz and Malaga sierras.

Both stories involve cartels, cocaine, passion, jail time, plastic surgery and women breaking through the glass ceiling in the male dominat ed world of international crime.

But whereas the Queen of the South is the fictional protagonist of Arturo Pérez-Reverte’s 2002 novel (La Reina del Sur) – inspiration for a Telemundo series in 2011, and later the eponymous Netflix hit – the self-styled Queen of Ronda is real.

That Cuevas del Becerro (pop. 1600) is a slow kind of place will be obvious to anyone who has ever driven through it: speed cameras are there to catch criminals who creep above 50 km/hr. Too slow for Mellado, who was born there to a construction worker and housewife in 1983.

She livened things up by dealing drugs but made rookie errors. At the age of 25, she was serving her first jail sentence after being arrested in Puerto Serrano, Cadiz with 400

grams of cocaine.

Her time in jail proved educational. She picked up tips and contacts and on her release tried again, this time rocketing up through the ranks, to become head of her own network, trafficking drugs from the Dominican Republic to southern Spain for large amounts of money. It’s unlikely she read Perez-Reverte’s novel on her prison bunk, but she was a fan of the se ries and tribute song, the Narcocorrido by Los Tigres del Norte, and she sought to emulate the glamorous Teresa in looks and deeds –and name: Queen of Ronda.

Friends and neighbours must have marvelled at how well the ex-con (now a single mother) was doing. Theoretically, an unemployed beau tician, with an inoperative clothing company registered to her name in nearby Pruna, Mella do had a luxurious house in the El Olivar urban isation of Arriate (outside Ronda), and frequent ly rented additional properties – in Ronda itself, as well as Estepona and even the exclusive La

Zagaleta urbanization in Marbella. She had a thing for buying cars. Before prison she’d splashed out on an Audi A6, a Hyund ai Coupe, and a moped. Between 2011 and 2012, she added to her fleet, buying a Peu geot 607 and a Ford Focus for her mother (who couldn’t drive), and a Nissan Pathfinder, which she registered to her daughter’s father Juan Gabriel Gomez Diaz (licensed only to drive bikes). She bought guns, but just replica ones, and kept one in a drawer beside the bed. She invested in plenty of plastic surgery for cosmetic as well as practical reasons. The snaggle-toothed, excited woman shown play ing in the sea in the photos she posted on Instagram during her first shopping trips in the Dominican Republic was soon replaced by something a little more dead-eyed. Playing by the drug boss rulebook, she in dulged in shows of public generosity, the most brazen of which took place in her home village on January 5, 2012. Mellado not only organized and funded the Three Kings Pa rade, she paid for toys for every child out of her hard-earned drug money, and even took part, dressed as a page and flanked by her drug-trafficking brother and partner playing two of the kings.

The 28-year-old Mellado must have been feeling very good about herself. Little did she know she had just 19 days of freedom left.

The Cadiz Guardia Civil had noted the increase in coke dealing activity in the sierras. They’d intercepted the deliv ery drivers, worked upwards, and were now following Mel lado.

INSIDE THE HEAD OF A DRUGS QUEEN

RENOWNED criminologist Ricardo Magaz who has followed Mellado’s career over the years says she is egocentric, and driven by the need

show off her achievements so that people, especially her neighbours, recognise her social rise’, regardless of the fact it’s the result of drug trafficking.

He explained: “She is an uncultured person from a humble background, but, perhaps because of this, she showed from a very young age a lot of courage and desire to excel at all costs, to stand out, without moral restraint.

“Drug trafficking – small-scale at first – served her purposes. She liked that among her group they called her ‘la narco del pueblo’.

“Maria del Mar has a des perate need for public ap proval. With the vast profits from drug trafficking, she lived surrounded by tinsel, wanting to be admired.

She emulated drug lords in the style of Pablo Escobar, El Chapo Guzman or, in Spain, the Galician Sito Miñanco.”

As for her ‘charity’ works, such as the Three Kings Parade, Magaz says she ‘longed in her heart to achieve two goals: to be a kind of ‘NGO’ for drug trafficking, although this seems crazy, and to shine as the new Queen of the South, in the manner of Teresa Mendoza’. Prison is not the end, says the criminol ogist: “A real narco never retires, wheth er man or a woman, Spanish or foreign. From jail they can keep in touch with their gang on the street. A ‘narco queen’ like her dies with her heels on.

“It’s the old story, once again, of the recidivism of drug traffick ers who poison a society, that live oblivious to the tragedy of thousands and thousands of lives destroyed by drug addic tion.”

Operation Vuelo had been launched in mid-2011, the name a reference to her frequent trips to the Carib bean out of Madrid-Barajas Airport.

In fact Mellado had made at least 11 trips to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic since leaving prison and had spent a further €48,000 in cash on tickets for drug mules.

Her visits had been to es tablish contacts and source 95% pure cocaine. The risky, dirty business of trafficking the drugs into Spain she left to others.

She plucked the badly paid and unemployed out of a pool of willing volunteers and, in return for €500 and a week in Punta Cana, they swallowed the drugs and brought them back.

Her contacts taught the mules how to wrap the balls of cocaine so they were less likely to die, and coached them in how to act to avoid

HIDEOUT:

THE SOUTH

detection.

The drugs were adulterated and distributed to sellers in the network who ran the retail drug side of the business in the Sierra de Cadiz and the Serrania de Ronda, but also in Sevilla and Malaga.

The Guardia Civil watched Mellado – some times accompanied by her daughter – hand ing out packets of cocaine to sellers at various ventas.

Shortly after the 2012 cabalgata, Mellado went to Punta Cana herself, accompanied by her partner Adan Lara Quesada, and two mules - Manuel Garrido Velasco and Daniel Perez Badia.

The drugs squad was there to meet her when she returned on January 24. One mule had been stuffed with 75 balls of cocaine valued at €44,000 and the oth er 50, valued at €32, 700.

Mellado was fined €280,000 and sentenced to 11 years, three months in prison, which she served in Cadiz.

sources, they knew the so-called Queen of Ronda was at it again.

Last August, a joint operation was launched between Spain’s National Police and Colombia’s police narcotics division, DIRAN with the aim of identifying a cou rier and seeing where that per son led them.

On August 17, agents from UDY CO (the Drugs and Organised Crime Unit) were watching ar rivals from Co lombia at Madrid airport for suspi cious behaviour when they spot ted a female passenger acting nervously at the security controls.

She funded a Three Kings Parade with toys bought with drug money

Her travelling companions were each fined €150,000 and sentenced to six years. In to tal, 21 members of her ring were arrested, including her brother, Francisco, his wife In maculada, and her trusted lieutenant Juan Antonio Diaz Jimenez aka Popi, who were fined and sentenced to seven years. As well as cocaine, the raids resulted in the seizure of cash, replica guns and nine vehicles.

Once again, jail was not the end of it, merely a learning curve which she took advantage of on her release.

Mellado hadn’t been home long when inves tigators began intercepting suitcases contain ing cocaine arriving from Colombia on flights into Madrid. When the couriers they arrested turned out to be residents of the Cadiz and Ronda mountains, with limited economic re

Access to shared intelligence im mediately re vealed she had a history of traf ficking.

They followed her to a city centre hotel and watched as she was met by a man who quickly drove off.

An hour later, the woman emerged carrying the suitcase and took a taxi to a residential area where the agents saw the same man – this time waiting with a woman they instantly rec ognised as Mellado.

The three disappeared into an

underground car park and were arrested as the suitcase was exchanged.

It contained 11 kilos of cocaine; the money to pay for it – €23,500 – had been wrapped in plastic and hidden inside the dashboard. So now Maria del Mar Mellado Blanco is back

in jail. In the original novel, Teresa Mendoza, Queen of the South, ended up with a new face and a new life under the witness protection program, but the Queen of Ronda can expect to serve seven to nine years. A happy outcome for drug traffickers

UNLOCK THE NEWS

YOU’VE

got Spotify, you pay for Netflix and now you’re going to have to pay for your journalism.

While traditionally anyone who wanted to be in formed bought a newspaper or magazine, this changed over the last decade with the advent of digital media.

As the world changed, the leading media groups, including the Daily Mail, the Guardian and the BBC guaranteed top quality, well researched content on the hour every hour.

But when Google and Facebook started to unfairly dominate global advertising revenue (by as much as 85%) media groups could no longer fund their journalism through adverts.

It has caused a crisis for the worldwide news media indus try (whether TV, radio or print) of enormous proportions.

A giant trust lawsuit filed by the European Union this year, alongside the UK, for 26 billion euros in damages against Google for unfair practices, could not come to court soon enough.

Most people realise that you only get what you pay for!

And currently, the ONLY way out for the media groups is to charge for their content and thankfully the vast majority of respectable groups now have paywalls. In Spain, that means El País, El Mundo and el Público, while locally Diario Sur, Provincias and Última Hora also do.

All of them offer a cheap, good value subscription service for their readers to enjoy largely ad-free, reliable, well re searched news content.

The Olive Press is no different and for over a year now has provided 20-plus stories a day with unfettered access and almost no ads for under €1.50 a week!

Over 30,000 of you have now registered and have taken the opportunity to have decent, well re searched content delivered to you daily.

While the newspaper remains free, and always will be, to be really well informed and up to date on everything from fires to the environment and from changes in the law to health warnings, it’s time to get on board.

The Olive Press is the trusted English speaking news provider, qualifying and check ing all its facts before publication and calling out the many fake news sources. This is, above all, our role. Advertising no longer funds this profession, the fourth estate, which is vital in a healthy democracy to keep checks and balances on the powers that be.

Just like the musicians who create the songs on Spotify or Apple Music and the actors and directors who create the movies and TV shows you now subscribe to on Amazon Prime or Disney, we hope you believe that journalists need to be paid for their work too.

If so, please join us at www.theolivepress.es to find the best package to suit you.

CRAFTY: Maria del Mar employed an army of Ronda mountain mules

Too hot to bear

UK HOLIDAY makers be lieve Spain will be off-limits as a summer travel destina tion by 2027, according to new research.

Following this summer’s wildfires and record-break ing temperatures across the UK and Europe, specialist travel insurance providers

InsureandGo asked 2,089 people to estimate which European countries could be too hot to travel to by 2027.

Spain was the destination holiday makers were most worried about, with 65% of respondents believing the climate in the popular desti nation for Brits would be un bearable in five years.

About 53% of people aged between 18-34 said Spain would be too hot to travel to, while 83% of over 65s said the same.

It comes after Spain this year sweltered through the most torrid summer since 1961.

The country’s average tem perature for June, July and August was 24 degrees cel sius, 2.2 degrees more than

EELS SAVED

SOME 180 kilos of critically endangered glass eels have been released into the wild after they were seized from poachers and smugglers.

The elvers, worth €270,000 on the black market, were rescued and 29 people ar rested by Spanish police, who carried out nearly 3,000 checks at ports, airports and other transport hubs.

The glass eels are regarded as a delicacy in Spain and parts of South East asia. They are often smuggled on to planes in suitcases bound for Asia.

“Most of the offences relate to illegal fishing, unlawful possession, illegal trafficking of endangered species and violations of laws governing natural spaces,” the Guardia Civil said.

Why UK tourists will stop traveling to Spain in five years

By Anthony Piovesan

the usual average. InsureandGo chief execu tive Chris Rolland said the results from the study were ‘staggering’.

But he added: “The family summer holiday will certain ly not go away. Our research

does suggest however, that it may well change in terms of holiday makers moving to ward cooler climates - or per haps that Easter and Christ mas will become the school holidays when more families head abroad for their break.

“I think this research is a real eye opener that things need to change - and fast.”

Personal action

THE Mar Menor lagoon has been given ‘per sonhood’ status in an effort to provide better protection for the threatened ecosystem.

A total of 1,600 square kilometres of the la goon and nearby Murcia coastline will now be legally represented by a group of local of ficials, residents of the area and scientists.

The lagoon has suffered massive die-offs of marine life as it degrades due to coastal de velopment and farming.

The initiative backed by more than 600,000 citizens will become law after the Senate in Madrid voted in favor of the proposal.

WINTER OF DISCONTENT

I’M not referring to a scene from Shakespeare’s Richard III, but to the here and now.

The stars are aligning to create the perfect storm:

• The consequences of the murdering psycho path Putin’s actions in Ukraine

• Food shortages

• Cost of living escalating prices

• Energy shortages

• Climate change inaction

Let me focus on the last two points.

ENERGY SHORTAGE

Continuous lack of investment in renewable en ergy resources by Europe and the wider world have exposed us to the problems we now face. Putin is using Russia’s plentiful stock of oil and gas as a weapon in his war against the west. Europe is scrambling to find available supply elsewhere. This is easier said than done.

And we all know what happens when demand outstrips supply. Prices go up. Europe is still dragging its heels rolling out addi tional renewable energy installations. Have you seen more solar farms or wind turbines being installed near you?

I haven’t.

The European Commission’s vice-president, Frans Timmermans, summed it up perfectly last week….

“The era of cheap fossil fuels is over. The faster we move to cheap, clean and homegrown renew ables, the sooner we will be immune to Russia’s blackmail.”

CLIMATE CHANGE INACTION

It’s a very simple formula - insufficient action = inadequate results.

Take Spain as an example.

Last year, Spain was Europe’s 4th biggest pol luter. Carbon emissions increased by more than 3%, while other EU countries reduced them by 5%.

Looking back over a longer period, between 1990 – 2020, Spain reduced carbon emissions by 8%. In the UK emissions were reduced by 45% in the same period. Germany managed to reduce them by 42%. The top 10 polluting companies in Spain are –Endesa, Iberdrola, Repsol, Cepsa, EDP, Arcelor mittal, Naturgy, FCC, CEMEX and LafargeHolcim. According to EU targets, Spain will have to re duce emissions by 55% by 2030 if it is to be on track for carbon neutrality by 2050. Fat chance of that given the lack of progress to date.

There is not long to go before the next United Nations next meeting in Egypt in November. Once again we can look forward to ministers de livering promises on action they won’t deliver. New UK Prime Minister Liz Truss promised during the leadership campaign to ‘double down’ on the UK’s commitment to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

In its latest report on net zero, UK government adviser the Climate Change Committee (CCC), said that ‘tangible progress is lagging behind policy ambition’.

Expect to witness more of the same shallow rhet oric coming from Sharm El Sheik next month. I’m still amazed that the UN selected a host country for this event with an appalling record on human rights.

Martin

the owner of

company Mariposa Energy.

martin@mariposaenergia.es

increasing in Spain despite climate pledges

By Martin Tye

TOO HOT: for chimps too

COP 27

IT’S OVER: Message from Frans Timmermans

Strategic family wealth planning for UK nationals in Spain.

With market insights

Russell Investments

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steps now to generate enough capital growth for your savings to keep pace with the rising cost of living.

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how custodial arrangements vary considerably, and take action to shelter your savings from institutional failure.

guest speakers from Russell Investments

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share their views on the global economy, markets and asset classes

ABOUT TIME

Paintings stolen during Spanish civil war by Franco forces returned to family

TWO paintings stolen from an aristocrat by forces of the Spanish dictator Franco have been returned to the family 85 years later.

Their return could see the recovery of other assets and pieces of art seized during the Spanish civil war following the release of a list of 62 art works taken during the 193639 conflict.

Madrid’s Prado museum re leased the list which featured paintings by 17th century Flemish artist Jan Brueghel the Younger and Spanish im pressionist Joaquin Sorolla. The two centuries-old muse um said in a statement it had set up a research team to re turn the artworks to their orig inal owners and determine if there were other works that were also confiscated.

The two recovered paintings - portraits by Vicente Lopez Portaña and the Flemish painter Frans Pourbus - were tracked down by Ramon de la Sota Chalbaud, the great grandson of Ramon de la Sota y Llano, the Marquis of Llano.

The portraits had been lent to

By Anthony Piovesan

the exhibition by the Parador de Almagro, part of a chain of state-owned hotels.

De la Sota y Llano, a Basque industrialist, was awarded a KBE by George V for lending his fleet to help the British

in the First World War. He became a target for Franco be cause of his Basque nationalist sympathies, with dictator forces going after De la Sota y Lla no’s proper ties in Bilbao in 1937.

His death in 1936 did not stop Francoists trying De la Sota y Llano 13 months later.

Fines

They imposed fines equiv alent to €4 million on his family and confiscated his art collection.

A ‘COMEDY’ show featuring dwarf bullfighters has been cancelled after just 37 tickets were sold.

It was due to take place on October 8 in Madrid. The proposed event had prompted ire from disabled associa tions. The Spanish Committee of Rep resentatives of People with Disability (CERMI) and the ALPE foundation for people with achondroplasia had both raised objections to the show. The general director of the Rights for Persons with Disabilities department

Rocking good time

FANS of 50s music should hear for Arta this month for The Doo Wop Fever festival. The event, which brings back the sounds and harmonies of American 1950s rock‘n’roll, will host 11 bands on Octo ber 29 at the Arta Te atre.

Although it will be the fourth edition of the fes tival, it is the first one to be held on the island. The previous three were held at a smaller scale in La Roda (Albacete). Its transfer to Mallor ca for its fourth edition was planned for 2020. However, pandemic restrictions forced its postponement.

Tickets for the Friday pre-party and Satur day show are €39, with doors opening at 6pm.

NO BULL

of the Social Rights Ministry, Jesus Martín Blanco, had also objected.

Blanco – who suffers a kind of dwarf ism – explained how these kinds of shows would negatively affect him when they came to his town when he was a child, prompting bullying from other children.

It seems the public agreed and voted against the show with their wallets.

RETURNED: Portraits by Portaña and Pourbus

Remote

Spain plans digital nomad visa to attract remote workers

SPAIN is planning to is sue ‘digital nomad’ visas to British citizens and foreigners outside the EU who wish to work remotely while enjoying the coun try’s summery weather. However, it will not be as straightforward as simply turning up and starting to work.

The visa will only be giv en to people who work remotely for companies outside Spain and who de rive a maximum of 20% of their income from Spanish firms.

If, as is expected, the law is passed, it will allow digital

By Jorge Hinojosa

nomads to stay in Spain for up to a year. This would be extendable to five years. Applicants to the scheme must be able to show ev idence that they have al ready been working re motely for at least a year before they move to Spain. They must also be able to show a contract of employ ment from a company out side Spain, or, if freelanc ing, have been regularly employed by a company outside the country. Evidence of sufficient

THE average cost of a basket of grocer ies has risen 15% in Spain, the highest increase seen in 34 years.

The hikes are most notable among the cheapest lines of products and own brands, which have gone up 16%.

A study from the OCU points out, this will have a major impact on lower-in come households.

The chains Dia and Mercadona are at the top of the list when it comes to price rises, with an increase of 16% in the last year. The cheapest chains are, according to

funds to live (probably around €2,000 a month) and proof of an address in Spain will also be needed. It is unclear whether they

Food costs soar

the study, Tifer, Dani, Family Cash, Alcampo and Supeco, while Sánchez Romero, Ulabox, Novavenda and Ama zon are the priciest. Vigo is the cheapest city for food shop ping, along with Ciudad Real in Castilla la Mancha. The most expensive cities are Palma de Mallorca, Barcelona, the Madrid satellite city of Alcobendas, Gi rona and the Spanish capital itself.

will need to have private medical cover. On the oth er hand, they will be taxed at just 15% of income. Successful applicants will be able to bring their close family such as spouses and children.

Nomads

Spain will join 15 other Eu ropean countries that al ready offer digital nomad visas - but each country has its own set of condi tions.

For example, Greece offers residency of one to three years for digital nomads with a monthly income of at least €3,500.

AFTER stumbling through the second half of September, the pound euro (GBP/EUR) exchange rate then collapsed at the end of the month following the UK government’s mini-budget. Over the last two weeks, GBP/EUR slumped from €1.156 to a two-year low of €1.087, before recovering some losses and wavering at around €1.118.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING?

After slipping to a 17-month low in mid-September following a larg er-than-forecast slump in UK retail sales, the pound euro exchange rate started to inch higher once again.

Expectations of a 75-bp interest rate rise from the Bank of England (BoE) gave Sterling some support, although thin trading conditions due to a lack of data and the Queen’s funeral meant GBP movement was limited.

Meanwhile, the single currency came under pressure as Russia es calated its invasion of Ukraine. Four Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine announced plans to hold referenda on joining the Russian Federation, then Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilisation and threatened the use of nuclear weapons.

The pound’s upside was stopped short as the BoE opted for a halfpoint hike, rather than the three-quarter-point move markets had been expecting.

The following day, Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng unveiled his ‘mini-bud get’, announcing £45bn in unfunded tax cuts – the biggest tax-cutting event in 50 years. The prospect of unmanageable levels of govern ment debt, rampant inflation and soaring interest rates sent UK mar kets into meltdown, with GBP/EUR plummeting to a 19-month low. Sterling briefly hit a two-year low against the single currency – and an all-time low against the US dollar – on the last Monday of September before recovering some ground amid speculation of an emergency rate rise from the BoE.

The pair then wavered in this region through much of the last week of September, with Sterling exhibiting bouts of volatility. While the BoE did not enact an unscheduled rate rise, it did step in with an emer gency bond-buying programme to staunch the sell-off in government bonds, helping the Pound recoup some losses.

In addition, growing tensions between Russia and the West main tained pressure on the euro, thereby supporting GBP/EUR. However, Sterling remained weak.

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO LOOK OUT FOR?

Economic data is fairly thin through the first week of October, so head lines around the Russia-Ukraine crisis and the volatility in UK markets could drive most movement in the pound euro pair.

Whether the Bank of England’s intervention in financial markets is enough to bring about stability remains to be seen. If the bank’s plans fail to alleviate concerns, it may be forced to act again, perhaps with an emergency rate hike, although there is very little appetite for this at Threadneedle Street.

Investors will be keeping a close eye on any rumours or announce ments from both the Treasury and the BoE. The outlook remains incredibly uncertain, meaning there’s a high risk of volatility in the pound.

At the same time, if the Russia-Ukraine war continues to escalate then the euro may face more headwinds. A renewed Russian offensive, fur ther sanctions, or signs that the conflict is spreading beyond Ukraine’s borders could all spell trouble for the single currency.

As we approach the middle of October, some high-impact UK data could prompt GBP/EUR movement. Traders will be watching the lat est labour market and GDP reports closely. Any more signs that the UK economy is faltering will likely add to the intense pressure on the pound.

PROTECTING AGAINST VOLATILITY

This kind of volatility can cause some nasty surprises if you need to transfer money overseas. On a £200,000 transfer, that four-cent gap between €1.15 and €1.11 translates to an €8,000 difference. And the larger the sum, the higher the discrepancy.

Fortunately, there are ways that you can protect against volatility.

Specialist currency brokers, such as Currencies Direct, offer different tools to help you navigate the ups and downs of the currency market. For instance, you can use a forward contract to secure an exchange rate for up to a year. This way, you won’t lose out if the market moves against you.

Services like rate alerts and daily updates make it easy to keep track of what’s going on in the forex world so that you can make informed decisions. And with Currencies Direct you’ll have a dedicated account manager there to provide guidance and support whenever you need them.

At Currencies Direct we’re here to talk currency whenever you need us, so get in touch if you want to know more about the latest news or how it could impact your currency transfers.

Since 1996 we’ve helped more than 325,000 customers with their currency transfers, just pop into your local Currencies Direct branch or give us a call to find out more.

BUYING VOT

AS elections approach some of Spain’s re gions are committing to slashing taxes, a move that has the central government on high alert.

The year 2023 will see elec tions in regions including Murcia, Madrid and Valen cia. As the polls near, some

Established 1989

As elections loom, regional governments are cutting taxes

EXPLAINED by Simon Hunter

of Spain’s politicians are re sorting to a tried and tested policy aimed at improving their popularity: announcing tax cuts.

Under the Spanish system, the central government sets some taxes, while others, such as wealth tax or inher itance tax, are set by the regions.

Last month, the regional premier in Andalucia, Juan Manuel Moreno of the con servative Popular Party (PP), announced the scrapping of wealth tax, or impuesto de patrimonio

The aim, he explained, was to encourage high earners to fix their place of resi dence in the region in order to boost tax revenues.

Since then, a number of other politicians have made similar moves.

Wealth tax is paid by any one with assets in excess of €700,000, and that in cludes anything from prop erty and artworks, to jewels and stocks.

According to Spanish daily El País , some 16,785 people were liable for the wealth

tax in 2020, the last year for which there are figures from the Tax Agency.

In 2020, the tax brought in more than €93 million for the region’s coffers.

According to government sources, just 0.2% of Anda lus cians will ben efit from this move.

They will be on average €5,800 bet ter off each year. The av erage wealth of people in this bracket in Andalucía is €2.74 million, according to Tax Agency figures.

tion of 4.1% on the first four income tax (IRPF) rates, af fecting those who earn up to €60,000.

The measure had been an nounced by the PP regional premier, Fernando López Miras, and will be applied to 2022 tax re turns.

Tax advantages have become a magnet for wealthy residents

The Murcia regional govern ment has approved a reduc

The move is ex pected to bene fit 330,000 tax payers, saving them a total of €8 million.

The regional government is also consider ing getting rid of the wealth tax.

Only Madrid, which has been governed by the PP for more than 25 years, had got

rid of wealth tax, costing the region some €53 billion in the last 20 years.

But PP politicians claim that tax advantages have seen the region become a mag net for wealthy residents and large firms.

Madrid is also going to re duce IRPF in line with infla tion, as will Andalucía.

Until now, the politicians an nouncing tax cuts had been from the conservative Popu lar Party.

However, the leader of the Valencian Socialist Party, Ximo Puig, has also just an nounced a reduction in IRPF (income tax) for those who earn up to €60,000.

Puig is the regional premier of Valencia, and governs in coalition with the leftist parties Compromís and Un ides Podem (the Valencian branch of Unidas Podemos). The plan is for the tax cut to be retroactive, and thus applied to 2022 tax returns. It will save taxpayers an av erage of €111 a year.

Puig made clear today that the measure would combat inflation and benefit “work ers and the middle class”. He also pointed out that the region would not make any changes to wealth tax.

The Socialist Party-led cen tral administration has crit icised the tax-cutting moves by the PP, calling them ‘fis cal populism’.

Race

“There are those who are embarking on a complete ly destructive race to the bottom, which starts with the elimination of taxes on large fortunes,” said Deputy Prime Minister and Econom ic Affairs Minister Nadia Calviño.

The plans in Valencia have also pitted the government against a member of its own party. In response, Ximo Puig has called for unity. For now, the central govern ment is refusing to lower taxes in its upcoming bud get for 2023.

ANDALUCIA PRESIDENT: Juan Manuel Moreno

MERCIA PRESIDENT: Fernando López Miras

VALENCIA PRESIDENT: Ximo Puig

DEPUTY PM: Nadia Calviño

Yum, yum

THREE chefs from Mallorcan restaurants will fly the Balea rics flag when they bid to win the 18th National Pinchos and Tapas Competition.

Antonia Massanet Perello, from the Ses Cases de Fetget restaurant, Andres Moreno Castellano, from the Sa Pun ta restaurant, and Igor Rodriguez Sanz, from the Palma restaurant El Bandarra have worked hard to create signa ture tapas for the event.

They are three of 46 finalists who hope to become the Champion of Spain at the Valladolid contest being held in November.

Antonia has come up with an ‘edible postcard’ of La Calo bra. It consists of a spiced biscuit with prawn paper and red prawn juice.

Frosty report

THE Sierra Nevada ski station in Granada has reported its first snowfall of the season. With two months to go before the official ski season kicksoff, the Sierra Nevada summit has been dusted with a fine layer of white snow.

Sierra Nevada is expected to be the first ski resort in the Iberian Peninsula to open this season, followed by Baquei ra Beret in the Pyrenees and from December onwards the Andorran resorts.

The Granada resort has set Friday, November 25, as the date to open its slopes and lifts. The ski season will run until April 23, 2023 and will see the inauguration of 105 brand-new snow cannons, meaning snow conditions will be optimal all winter.

One day later, Baqueira Beret, one of the most popular and ski resorts in Spain, is set to open in the Val de Aran area of Catalunya.

Andres’s dish is vegan and suitable for coeliacs. It has pump kin, sweet potato and turnip, spiced with cloves, cinnamon, peppers and curries. Igor’s creation is a pincho made with cuttlefish, sour Soller lemon jam and herb mayonnaise.

SKY HIGH

Families hit in pocket by soaring air fares

By Simon Hunter

FLIGHT prices for the UK’s upcoming autumn half-term school holiday are 42% more expensive than they were be fore the Covid-19 pandemic hit in early 2020.

Consumers’ organisation Which? reports that the aver age cost of a one-way ticket at half term for six popular des tinations was £212 this year compared to £150 in 2019. Rising fuel costs, pent-up de mand and passenger caps at airports are all contributing factors to this rise.

Of the six destinations anal

OP Puzzle solutions

ysed, three are in Spain: Ali cante, Malaga and Tenerife. The remainder were Antalya, Dubai and Dublin. The depar ture airports were England’s busiest: Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Stansted, Luton and Birmingham. The study found that the Heathrow to Tenerife route had experienced the biggest ticket hike, with an average

extra cost of £262 per pas senger per flight compared to pre-pandemic days, meaning an extra £2,096 spent for a family of four.

Meanwhile, Heathrow to Malaga flights had risen from £193 to £282, which is a hike of 216% in just three years. Which? also found that those who booked their half-term flights six months in advance paid an average of £60 less each way compared to those who booked three months before, which translates into savings of £480 for a family of four.

Rights

The consumer champion is calling for passenger rights to be upheld and enforced in this context of higher prices, and wants to see the Civil Aviation Authority to be giv en powers to impose heavy fines on operators when they break the rules.

SADNESS AND REFLECTION

FEEL that it is appropriate to speak about Queen Elizabeth instead of in surance this month.

I have been overwhelmed by the reac tion of people in Scotland, Northern Ire land, Wales and England.

As we know the Queen loved Balmoral, where she has spent many happy days growing up and having her family there, with no press around to disturb the joy. It was so appropriate that her last request was to go to Balmoral.

I believe the Queen knew she didn’t have much time left and she wanted to die in one of her favourite places. How proud and sad the Scots were and they gave her a very dignified and loving goodbye. Then she was returned to London and I think the Royal Air Force handled her re turn with great respect and dignity. It was the start of the enormous part the

Dear Jennifer:

The wave of emotion from the people of Scotland, England, Wales and Northen Ireland has been overwhelming

Services played in her funeral.

On the day of the funeral, everything was extraordinary and beautiful. The organi sation and planning behind it all was very professional and sensitive.

From family and friends, dignitaries and politicians and both the British and world wide public, everyone was able to say goodbye to such a wonderful Queen, who had been part of our lives for so long.

I have nothing but admiration for King Charles.

He managed to do his duty and what was expected of him, although his grief was etched on his face and with Camilla by his side he was able to carry out all the

duties expected of him.

His sister, Princess Anne was just amaz ing - she never left her mothers’ side, wherever the Queen went, she was there.

I wonder if the Queen realised how much she was loved by both her family and by so many millions of people throughout the world. The British people pulled to gether in their grief to give the Queen the send-off she deserved and also to wel come the new King and the beginning of another era.

I personally feel that King Charles, who has been preparing for years, will make an excellent King and gives us hope for the future.

FOOD,DRINK & TRAVEL

THE BEST CHEFS IN THE WORLD

Explained: Why is Spain consistently battering Italy, Japan and even France into a pulp in the restaurant stakes? Great ingredients and the ‘famous five’, writes Olive Press editor Jon Clarke (below)

WHEN

the annual list for the top 100 chefs in the world came out last month, it made for proud reading for Spain.

There were an incredible four Spanish cooks in the global Top 10, while seven made it into the Top 20.

That Madrid’s culinary genius Dabiz Munoz had won for his second year was less surprising for me than the sheer number of lesser known chefs who made the Top100 of the Best Chef poll.

For this year, there are actually 19 chefs spread over 16 amazing Spanish restaurants, easily battering Italy and France into second and third position with 15 and 10 chefs apiece.

Chosen by 150 professionals around the world, including food critics, the Best Chef positioning is later voted by 200 global chefs, making it a genuine industry award.

It is serious stuff and it is not hard to see how well Spain has progressed since the list first came out in 2017.

Back then, while Catalan Joan Roca was top, Spain had just seven chefs in the list, while France had 23 and Italy 17 entries.

Talk about tables turning in just six years, it will have Les Frogsaleisse choking in their boeuf bourguignon.

And it’s not just this global list to note the remarkable chang es, with other presti gious titles, such as Restaurant magazine’s World’s 50 Best list, which has three Spanish joints in the Top 10 as it has for the last decade.

But take the famous French food bible, the Michelin guide. itself.

Today there are 228 restaurants with a Mi chelin star in Spain (11 with the max imum of three stars), while in 2013 there were just 148 (seven getting the maximum rating).

While this is less stars than in Italy, Japan - and of course France itself - the growth has been extraordinary and shows considerable progress for a country that the French traditionally look down their noses at.

Indeed, when I published my own restaurant book, Dining Secrets of Andalucia, a decade ago, the Miche lin guide was taking so little interest in Spain’s largest region that it alleged ly only had one inspector here… the same person also in charge of running a rule over next door Extremadura.

I was so amazed at all the excellent places the famous red guide missed on my work trips around the region with the Olive Press or the British nationals, I felt they warranted their own book to promote them. In total, I had 100 references in that book, spread across the eight provinces, of which per haps only a quarter even got a cursory mention in the Michelin guide.

What I was clearly noticing back then was how much an Iberian gourmet rev olution was rapidly spreading around the south.

Nobody had ever questioned that the Basque re gion or Catalun ya had excellent chefs and cre ativity, much of

it assumed to be due to their closeness to France. The resort of San Sebastian had long been a famous place for a food pilgrimage and its record-break ing concentration of Michelin stars is globally recognised.

But what was much less known was how well you could also eat in places like Ronda, Sevilla and Marbella, or Valencia, Toledo and Cadiz. There were liter ally dozens of creative places popping up each year in the big southern cities, most of them well under the radar.

I felt it was the job of local papers like the Olive Press to champi on these new places and to be at the vanguard of the bustling new foodie scenes that were sparking up in little known gems like Vejer de la Frontera, the Aracena region, in Huelva, or the Cabo de Gata park, in Almeria. What I kept continually noticing was how many local chefs had returned to their hometowns after going off to learn their trade up north and often around the world. They kept mentioning chefs like Martin Berasategui and Ferran Adria… and not only were they coming back with numerous culinary skills, but they were arriving to find the produce in southern Spain was among the best in Europe. Aside from the legendary vegetables and fruits, including mangoes and av ocados, the pork from around Jabugo, the Retinto beef

on the Costa de la Luz and the fish from around Barbate, Denia, Murcia, Sanlucar and Motril was staggeringly good. And then there was the rice from around Valencia, the saffron from in land and the wild mushrooms from the many varied sierras. They only had to head to their local markets at the crack of dawn to get their share.

But the real key to all this, I believe, were the foundations put in place throughout the late 1980s and 1990s. This was when Spain’s culinary stand ing started to come of age, getting past the hedonistic Movida stage of par tying and excess that came after the death of Franco.

FAMOUS FIVE

It was, naturally, up in the north, most ly centred around San Sebastian and Catalunya that the ripples began, founded on the shoulders of five key chefs, the aforementioned Berasategui and Adria, as well as Joan Roca, Pedro Subijana and Juan Mari Arzak.

This famous five of Spanish chefs has had so much influence on the coun try’s cuisine - and trained hundreds of brilliant chefs - that they deserve to be knighted today.

Each of them bold, creative men, what also marks them out is how much ef fort they put into training their staff. One classic example is the success Malaga chef Jose Carlos Garcia has had since serving an internship at Joan Roca’s three Michelin star Celler de

Can Roca two decades ago. Celebrat ing the 10th anniversary at his epon ymous, starred restaurant last week, Roca cooked with his former pupil, be fore expressing his ‘pride’ at how well he has done.

Another talented protege is Benito Gomez at Ronda’s extraordinary two Michelin star Bardal restaurant. When I first met him he was cooking at Fer ran Adria’s El Bulli sister restaurant at Finca Benazuza near Sevilla, pulling out a remarkable 25-course tasting menu twice a day. It was the best meal I have ever eaten (aside from the mas tery of Dabiz Munoz at Madrid’s Diverxo a few years back) and Benito gives so much respect to the inspiration he got from his teacher Adria who ‘blew away the es tablishment’.

Adria himself gave a glow ing tribute to the new phalanx of chefs ‘doing amazing things’ in Anda lucia, six years ago. Speaking to me at an event at Marbella’s Puente Romano hotel, the Catalan revealed how much he loved travelling south since things had improved. “The region really is extraordi nary now and just keeps getting better,” he told the Olive Press. “There are at least five or six really amazing restau rants that did not exist here a decade ago and creativity is very much at the fore.”

Subijana (of Akelarre restaurant) is another chef who raved about the rap id improvements around the south of the country when I interviewed him in 2014. An incredibly generous and nur turing man, he didn’t stop stressing the importance of teaching and is known to give an enormous amount of time to young chefs.

Meanwhile, San Sebastian’s Bera sategui, who has a record 12 Michelin stars globally, has sent out dozens of top chefs to cook around Spain. These include Eneko Atxa, whose own restau rant Azurmendi sits in the Top 20 of both the world’s top restaurant lists.

Last, but not least, Juan Mari Arzak, of ten described as the ‘godfather of Spanish cuisine’ is credited with creating a creative trend in Spanish cuisine which took on a head of steam when he set up the Basque-based Eu ro-toques network alongside Subijana in 1986.

FOOD TOURISM

One final point worthy of note is the importance in the growth of gourmet tourism over the last few decades with the industry predicted to grow by 16% to €1.8 trillion globally by 2027.

The World Food Travel Association estimates that visitors spend approx imately 25% of their travel budget on food and drinks and the figure can get as high as 35% in upmarket des tinations. With Spain coming second only to Italy with the largest number of culinary tourists (22%) a year in Europe, it has become very big business.

But, as Ferran Adria stressed to me in 2016, chefs around Spain have been bril liant at just getting on with it and fo

€1.8 trillion... the value of the global gourmet tourist market

Dozens of creative places pop up each year in the big southern cities

LISTEN UP: Ferran Adria tells Jon why Spain’s chefs have reached the top

FAMOUS FIVE: From left, Ferran Adria, Joan Roca, Martin Berasategui, Pedro Subijana and Juan Mari Arzak

GENIUS: Madrid’s Diverxo chef Dabiz Munoz has snared the number one slot for the second year in a row

Judge Rude-y

Bedrock ambassador

THE caves of Nerja are so popular that the local tourism board have given them the title of ‘Tourism Ambassador 2022’.

Refuse corrector

A MADRID resi dent has been fined €2,001 for leaving a cardboard box next to the bins in a City Hall crackdown on ‘littering’.

Plane daft

CLUELESS Saz Ismail has launched a Go Fund Me appeal after getting stranded on Ibiza when he first missed his flight, then booked a second from the wrong island and finally bought a ticket to the wrong UK airport.

Storm in a paella pan

Spanish police dub Tesco sandwich a ‘health hazard’

SPAIN’S Guardia Civil have waded into a row over UK retailer Tesco’s paella sand wich.

Perhaps still smarting from celebrity chef Jamie Oli ver’s definitely not pucker recipe for the rice dish that included chorizo sausage, to the outrage of many ‘afi cionados’, the police are not impressed with the culinary innovation.

By Jorge Hinojosa

“Today is world paella day, so we need to celebrate with real paella, not with those paellas that are sold abroad,” wrote the Guardia Civil on its Twit ter account.

“The paella sandwich for some people is something amazing, but for others it is disgusting and could be a

Splashdown

health hazard,” it insisted. Some Spaniards living in the UK are also ‘surprised’ and

A SPANISH Boeing cargo plane, has crash-landed into a lake near Mont pellier airport in southern France

The plane overshot the runway and nosedived into a lake, leading to three people being rescued from the aircraft.

According to Flightradar24 data, the plane was travelling a very fast 160 knots when it landed and was unable to stop in time to avoid the end of the runway.

can't believe that there is a paella sandwich.

Carla Cano, 23, current ly working as an events assistant in London, told the Ol ive Press: “I imagine my self having a paella in

front of the beach in Spain, not on my way to work in Ox ford street.”

And plenty of Spaniards have taken the news extremely seriously. One Spaniard on Twitter thundered: “This is an insult and a lack of respect for a Spanish dish, for the community in Spain, for all Valencians.”

To make matters worse, the sandwich follows Jamie’s ad vice and includes the dreaded chorizo.

A MAN due to stand trial for ‘exhibitionism’ was turned away from court when he arrived totally naked.

Alejandro Colomar, 29, was due to appeal a fine handed to him for walking around Valencia without a stitch on except for a pair of boots. But when he tried to enter the court, cops refused him entry and told him that if he did not put on his clothes, he would get another fine.

“I have been to nudist beaches since I was little and I have never had any problem with nudity. One day I discovered that it was legal to be naked and I started to do it,” said Colo mar.

Stingy

A WOMAN who drove the wrong way down a motorway for seven kilometres because she was too mean to pay a toll now faces a hefty fine instead. Police were called by staff on the R3 in Madrid to tell them a car had turned around when it arrived at the tollbooth and was driving against oncoming traffic.

The woman told officers that she was trying to avoid the toll.