An island to savor: that's the taste of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Gastronomic Capital 2027

The jury, comprised of tourism, hospitality, and communications professionals, praised the variety, innovation, and creativity of Tenerife's proposal. Under the slogan 'Santa Cruz de Tenerife, a crossroads of flavors,' the capital city has planned a program of 137 gastronomic activities throughout 2027 to showcase its products, markets, restaurants, and traditional cuisine, reinforcing gastronomy as a key part of its identity and tourist appeal.

Tenerife is an island of free spirits, flowing hair, and bare feet on the rocks. It's also open-minded and embraces influences from all sides. Its cuisine combines fish like vieja, cherne, sama, and cabrilla with potatoes, gofio, goat cheese, and Canary Island bananas, while the green and red mojo sauces have become some of its defining characteristics. Added to this is a history of connections between Europe, America, and Africa that explains much of the diversity of its recipes.

In recent decades, this tradition has found new ways to express itself. Canarian cuisine now coexists with restaurants that reinterpret local recipes, new gastronomic spaces, and a generation of chefs who have elevated the island's culinary offerings without abandoning its roots. Wine also plays a prominent role: Tenerife boasts five wine-producing designations of origin, a diversity that reflects its different volcanic soils, altitudes, and microclimates.

Guachinches, the taste of home

And if there's one place where this cuisine retains much of its essence, it's the guachinches, old family-run wine cellars transformed into temples of Canarian home cooking. Historically linked to the production and sale of local wine, they serve simple, unpretentious cuisine featuring meats, fish, potatoes, gofio (a type of flour), and traditional stews, generally at reasonable prices, with the ingredients taking center stage. Because there are few scenes more quintessentially Tenerife than sitting down to a plate of wrinkled potatoes with mojo sauce, a glass of local wine, the Atlantic Ocean, and the laurel forests as a backdrop.

Hearty food!

Wrinkled potatoes with mojo sauce. One of the great emblems of Canarian cuisine. The small potatoes are boiled in their skins with plenty of salt until they develop their characteristic wrinkled skin and are served with red or green mojo sauce.

Carne fiesta. A dish associated with popular celebrations and guachinches (traditional Venezuelan eateries). It's prepared with pork marinated in garlic, paprika, wine, vinegar, and spices, then fried until golden brown and juicy. It's usually served with French fries.

Rabbit in salmorejo sauce. One of the most traditional recipes from Tenerife. The rabbit is marinated in a mixture of garlic, paprika, wine, vinegar, oil, and spices before cooking, and is usually served with potatoes.

Chickpeas. A hearty chickpea stew with pork, chorizo, bacon, vegetables and spices, closely linked to the home cooking of the islands.

Ropa vieja. A traditional recipe that uses up leftovers, combining chickpeas, shredded meat, potatoes, onion, bell pepper, tomato, and spices. In the Canary Islands, it has become one of the most recognizable dishes of its popular cuisine.

Grilled cheese with mojo sauce. Cheese, usually goat cheese, that is grilled or baked until golden brown on the outside and served with green or red mojo sauce.

Canarian almogrote. Although it is especially characteristic of La Gomera, it can also be found in Tenerife. This intensely flavored spread is traditionally made with aged cheese, peppers, garlic, and oil, and is usually spread on bread.

Canarian sancocho. One of the dishes most closely linked to the islands' seafaring tradition. It is prepared with salted fish, usually wreckfish, accompanied by potatoes, sweet potato, and gofio (toasted cornmeal), and served with mojo sauce.