Taste 1973 in Diario de Avisos: among the best cheese trolleys in Spain
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Taste 1973, in Tenerife, among the best restaurant cheese trolleys, according to the MICHELIN Guide
by Pepe Miranda in Diario de Avisos, 6 December 2025
Diario de Avisos, in its Gastronomy section, reports that MICHELIN Guide inspectors have placed the cheese trolley of Taste 1973 among the best in Spain. We’re delighted for something very specific: what’s being recognised here are the native breeds and the cheeses made on the islands.
The article starts from a moment in the dining room: the one when the trolley comes out once the tasting menu has left the savoury courses behind and the desserts have yet to arrive. There, the paper writes, the MICHELIN inspectors singled out the one at Taste 1973, at the Hotel Villa Cortés in Arona, for its commitment to native breeds.
From the trolley, the paper reports, the MICHELIN Guide highlights the “coherence, technique and recovery of Guanche gastronomic roots”, with a total of 50 Canarian cheeses selected by Iván Alfaro, a member of Diego Schattenhofer’s kitchen team. On it, enzymatic- and lactic-coagulation cheeses made with milk from native breeds sit alongside one made in-house: “If there’s one that’s more special, it’s the Guanche cheese, which we make ourselves as a tribute to those first settlers of the islands,” explains Alfaro. That aboriginal cheese is familiar ground at home: Diego works on it with Dr Marichu Fresno, of the ICIA.
The work doesn’t end when the cheese reaches the kitchen. “Taste 1973’s differentiating value is that it contributes not only months of controlled maturation in our ageing chamber, but that we also affine them with paprika, wine, mushrooms and seasonal truffle,” says Alfaro. Behind the trolley there’s also a map of small cheese dairies: “95% of the cheeses come from goat’s milk and from small dairies with extensively grazed herds.” It’s the same thread we’ve been following for years with the Canarian goat and with artisan goat’s milk cheeses. Alfaro is reluctant to pick a favourite, though he ends up settling on El Minero.
Read the full piece in Diario de Avisos: Taste 1973, in Tenerife, among the best restaurant cheese trolleys, according to the MICHELIN Guide.
Taste 1973 receives the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Academy of Gastronomy's 2024 Annual Award