CulturePlex Data Points VOL 3 l ISSUE 1 l OCT 2019 l ISSN 2561-5211

YOU EAT WELL IN SPAIN, RIGHT?

Here’s the data to confirm it.Authors: Juan Luis Suárez Antonio Jiménez Mavillard

Ana Ruiz Segarra

1

DATA FACTS u 331 restaurants were evalu-

ated between July 2012 and

September 2019.

For several years, José Carlos Capel, gastronomic journalist at El País, has been writing his famous blog “Gastronotas de Capel” and a cuisine critique column  (https://elviajero.elpais.com/autor/jose_carlos_capel/a/) in which he evaluates, and rates his experience in several Spanish restaurants.

He is President of Madrid Fusión, the most important gastronomy summit in the world, and his articles and notes on social networks are highly anticipated.  He is also a member of the Royal Academy of Gastronomy. His influence on the gastronomic world is evident through his criticism and knowledge.

Therefore, in this issue of DataPoints, we have decided to “characterize” this knowledge through the cartography of the best restaurants in Spain. Note that Capel bases his criticism on three main elements: photos, text and evaluation. In this first installment on gastronomy, we have used the evaluations of Capel, which always contain a global score of the restaurant evaluated, as well as the sub-categories: bread, wine list, coffee, ambiance, toilets, service, cuisine, and desserts. In subsequent issues, we will analyze what the critics say about Spanish haute cuisine.

DESSERT u Thirteen restaurants reach

the 8 point score in dessert.

There are 230 restaurants

with a score less than 7 in

the dessert category.

MinaNerua

Atrio

Enigma

Diverxo

Mugaritz

Disfrutar

Etxebarri

El Invernadero41º Experience

Ricard Camarena

El Celler De Can Roca

Quique Dacosta Restaurante

Tickets

8.250000 - 8.333000

8.333001 - 8.500000

8.500001 - 9.000000

9.000001 - 9.500000

9.500001 - 10.000000

Score in desserts per restaurant

Figure 1. Restaurants with the best desserts in Spain.

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Our data show that all the restaurants that Capel has evaluated, have received more than 5 points on a scale of 10.  The lowest overall score is a 5, which four restaurants share; while another nine have a 5.5. The most repeated score is 7, given to 169 restaurants (a notable high rating in the olden days), including Eneko and 47 Ronin. The score for 47 Ronin is in part due to the 4 it received for bread, although it is a Japanese-inspired restaurant.

From then on, there are at least 88 restaurants in Spain with a score of 7.25 or more.Reaching the summit of Capel’s tower is not easy. Only Celler de Can Roca received an overall score of 10 (with 9 for “bread”, 9.5 for “coffee” and 9 for “toilets”), followed by Quique Dacosta Restaurant (9,583), Enigma (9.5), Mugaritz (9,375), Diverxo (9,375), Ricard Camarena (9,167), Dani García Restaurant (9,167), Tickets (9), Nerua (9), Etxebarri (9), Atrium (9), and 41º Experience (9).

Atrio’s high score demonstrate an interesting fact: Extremadura is the region where you eat best, but only because Atrio, in Cáceres, is the only Extremaduran restaurant on the list. La Rioja, Castilla-La Mancha, Cantabria and Andalucía are next in the ranking of the best regions to eat in Spain, when we consider the average scores.

If we do it by density, several regions of Spain have restaurants rated above 8 points (Table 1).

Region Restaurants

Basque Country Mugaritz; Nerua; Exteberri; Azurmendi; Mina

Catalonia El Celler de Can Roca; Enigma; Tickets; 41º Experience

Valencia Quique Dacosta Restaurante; Ricard Camarena

Madrid Diverxo; Ramón Freixa

Andalusia Dani García Restaurante; Aponiente

Extremadura Atrio

Asturias Casa Marcial

Galicia Culler de Pau

Cantabria Cenador de Amós

BREAD u 93 scored less than 5 on

bread and 225 scored

lower than 7.

MAP u

Each region’s colour

represents the score. The

dark green is the highest

score.

Andalucía

AragónCastilla y León

Galicia

Castilla - La Mancha

Cataluña

Extremadura

La Rioja

Comunidad Valenciana

País Vasco

Región de Murcia

CantabriaPrincipado de Asturias

Comunidad Foral de Navarra

Comunidad de Madrid

Islas Baleares

Islas Baleares

Islas Baleares

Average score per region

6.250000

6.555556 - 6.882353

6.984375 - 7.187500

7.575000

9.000000

Figure 2. Average score by region.

Table 1. Restaurants with 8 or more point score.

CATALONIA u Three of them are managed

by Albert Adrià.

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Once the averages are all calculated, the overall score is higher than 6 (Balearic Islands), which means that you can eat in Spain for many years in restaurants with a score higher than 7.

PRICE-QUALITY RELATIONSHIP

Of course, the price for some of these restaurants is high, and so it is a major obstacle for budget travelers dreaming of a gastronomic trip through Spain. The menus of the most affordable restaurants cost about 30 euros per person, more than 50% are below 60 euros, and 19 charge more than 150 euros. The most expensive, Diverxo, reaches 275 euros per head.

When exploring the relationship between quality and price, we observe that the most “expensive” restaurants have a lower value, basically because the global score is very low (a maximum of 10) when compared with the highest price (270 euros). For example, an “expensive” restaurante like Zuberoa has 8 points/140 euros=0.05 (very low relation), whereas A Pluma has 6 points/17.5 euros = 0.3428 (a much higher relation). Therefore, a low price normally benefits the quality-price relation (more than a high score).

Once the calculations are done for all restaurants, we see that the mid value is around 0.12. We have drawn a line dividing the restaurants according to that value and we have coloured in blue all restaurants with a quality-price relation above 0.12 (left side of the diagonal), and in orange all restaurants under that value (to the right side). In the space of blue dots, you will find, among others: A Pluma (Barcelona), La Casa del Carmen (Toledo), Singular Cuisine (Alcobendas), Canalla Bistro (Valencia), Roca Moo Bar (Barcelona, already

PRICE QUALITY u The diagonal marks the mid

value (0.12) of the quality

price relation. Restaurants to

the left of the line (in blue)

stand out in this aspect.

Figure 3. Price - Quality Scatter Plot.

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METHODOLOGY

In this issue, we downloaded articles from the “Comer” section (El Viajero, in El País), and we extracted critics and evalutaion of Spanish Restaurants. We calculated the average of restaurants that were evaluated more than once. Finally, we calculated Pearson’s correlation coeficient to measure the influence of each criteria in the global score of each restaurant.

www.cultureplex.ca

EDITION Emilio Calderón

Zeina DghaimDESIGN

Ana Ruiz SegarraCOORDINATION

Yadira Lizama-Mué

COLLABORATORSMaría Paula Espejo

Tata MéndezBárbara Romero

Daniel Varona Cordero @cultureplex cultureplex@gmail.com

London, Ontario, CanadaThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

CulturePlex Data Points I VOL 3 I ISSUE 1 I OCTOBER 2019 4

closed), Naguar (Oviedo), Casa Marcelo (Santiago) de Compostela), Suculent (Barcelona), Palomeque (Zaragoza), Canela en rama (Linares), La Maruca (Madrid) and Restaurant Santi Taura (Lloseta, Mallorca). among others. If you need a criterion to choose your next destination beyond fame, follow the price-quality relationship for haute cuisine. 

The price range leads us to conclude that, while our readers, the self-declared “foodies” and lovers of good cuisine (cuisinies), gather money and patience to make reservations at the best rated restaurants, they can explore a wide variety of styles, prices, and categories thanks to Capel. Not to mention the many bars and restaurants in Spain that offer excellent value for your money.

Finally, the data indicate that the most influential categories (see “Correlation values”) for Capel’s overall score is, of course, the cuisine, followed by dessert and service, while bread and coffee have little influence. Given the large number of extraordinary bakeries that are now available throughout Spain - it should not cost much to improve this category. The importance of cuisine, the consistency of the critic, and the data confirm it: in Spain, you eat very well!

MOST INFLUENTIAL CATEGORIES u

Cusine 0,676387 Dessert 0,587482 Service 0,562899

Wine List 0,526947

Ambiance 0,487684Toilets 0,416803Pearson’s coeficient

correlation.