Abel Álvarez

Born in the location where they say the Reconquest began, Gamoneu, cheese and the fighting spirit are second nature to him. His initial years were spent in Germany, where his parents had emigrated, but they soon returned to their native Asturias to move into cooking by chance. He came into contact with it, fell in love with it, and took the plunge by teaming up with his partner Luisa Cajigal to buy the house which is now the Güeyu Mar restaurant. “All the employees I had at the beginning were older than me”.

He declares himself an enthusiast of fish and ember grills, in which he is an expert. “If there's a touch too much smoke, or you overcook, you've screwed up”. He uses his embers to cook primarily red bream (90% of sales, "what all customers order"), but he adapts to the market. He likes fish, but he is happy to serve it up, for example, with peas in season and seafood, especially boiled crab.

In 2016 he launched a brand of artisan preserves, which is still an ongoing concern and is used for the restaurant. “This is what gives us stability all year round, especially in these Covid times", he says.