Zamora arrives at the Hotel & Mantel 2026 Awards as a finalist for Best National Mantel, with a pantry where territory, tradition and product make the difference. The province prides itself on cheeses and meats, but also on legumes, wines, and mushrooms. A range of quality ingredients that bars and restaurants have managed to bring from the market to the bar, to the table and to tasting menus.
Foods of Zamora
The brand Alimentos de Zamora, created by the provincial government in 2004, was born to support and give visibility to a way of understanding gastronomy that sinks its roots in the Zamoran countryside. A tradition made of flocks, cereal crops, orchards, vineyards and hills, which finds its raison d’être in time-honored recipes, but which also inspires a cuisine that explores new paths.
Among its best-known products is Zamorano Cheese, made from milk of Churra and Castellana sheep, with Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) and linked to a cheese-making tradition documented for thousands of years. Also the IGP Aliste Veal, which owes part of its character to extensive farming and to family-run farms, and legumes that speak of an agricultural culture that has managed to preserve its varieties and ancestral cultivation methods: IGP Fuentesaúco Chickpeas, with a soft skin and buttery texture, and IGP Tierra de Campos Lentil, small and with a delicate skin.
No hay pimiento más grande, rojo y dulce que el de Fresno-Benavente ni una harina tan blanca y delicada como la zamorana, vinculada a la antigua tradición de los molinos hidráulicos y a uno de los alimentos más cotidianos –y cotizados– de su cultura gastronómica: el pan. A ellos se suman el Chorizo Zamorano, el IGP Lechazo de Castilla y León y las setas. Porque cada temporada, en los montes de Zamora, un territorio de robles, pinos y encinas, crecen hongos silvestres de gran variedad, aroma y textura.
