You can’t avoid the suckling pigs at José María: this is Segovia’s temple to the cochinillo’s delights, where some 8,000 suckling pigs are dished up annually. There’s even a bronze effigy of one snuggling contentedly outside. José María himself exudes energy, warmth and enthusiasm, despite running a team of 50 staff and catering for hundreds of faithful customers every weekend. He has even cooked for King Juan Carlos.
José María is from a farming family, based just outside Segovia, and he had a love of quality Castilian foods instilled in him as a child. The secret of his success is his fidelity to local ingredients, which he juggles within a traditional framework, making slight ‘modernist’ adjustments. ‘The main protagonist of each of my dishes is the central food - everything else is delicately complementary. Castile is a self-assured region, but it lacks fantasy, so I’m careful,’ he says. Despite this caution, the tapas served in José María’s heaving front bar are delicious and he constantly reinvents his menu (apart, that is, from the suckling pig!). ‘We try lots of things to make interesting new dishes, but many aren’t viable for making on a large scale in the restaurant,’ he bemoans. When he opened this bar-restaurant in 1982, he declared ‘I have a face and two hands, so why not use them?’ The diners’ response? Absolutely!
