Cachopo Pelayo 1947 Edition

The gastronome Gaspar Casal leaves the first written mentions of stuffed fillets in Asturian cuisine. A humble dish, of shepherds and miners, as hearty as the land that gave it birth.

Asturian gastronome Adela Garrido documents a "filete a la asturiana" in her cookbook. It is not yet called cachopo, but the essence is already there: Asturian beef, stuffing, breading.

Bar Pelayo, in Oviedo, with Olvido Fernández Álvarez (known as Olvidín) leading the kitchen, adds the cachopo to its menu. Through people close to her, we learned that the dish was not born finished: the first cachopos to leave that kitchen were stuffed with asparagus and a French omelette — no cheese or ham. It was a process of trial and refinement until they arrived at the recipe we all recognise today. That establishment was our direct predecessor. Its story is ours.

The popularity of the cachopo spreads throughout Asturias. Other restaurants adopt and adapt it. The recipe evolves towards the classic filling of serrano ham and Asturian cheese. The cachopo becomes a symbol of northern Spanish gastronomy.

We owned and ran Bar Pelayo — birthplace of the cachopo — during its final years. When that venue closed, we merged it with La Corte de Pelayo on Calle San Francisco, bringing both names and both histories together. The name is not an empty tribute. It is a responsibility.

At the I Asturias Cachopo Championship we presented the recipe we had been perfecting for years: Cachopo Pelayo 1947 Edition · The Origin. Selected Asturian beef, a filling rooted in history, and a breading that preserves every drop of juiciness. We won.

Together with La Guía del Cachopo, we drove the national visibility of a dish that was virtually unknown outside Asturias. We appeared on Spain's leading national television networks — TVE, La Sexta, Antena 3, Cuatro and others — bringing the Asturian cachopo into millions of Spanish homes. What had been a regional secret began to become a national gastronomic phenomenon.

Since our victory at the I Championship, we have been invited to sit on the jury at the various cachopo competitions and championships held across Asturias and Spain. A responsibility we take on with the same standards as our cooking: rigour, respect for the product, and fidelity to the original dish. Each edition has been an opportunity to keep raising the bar for Asturian cachopo, and to help this dish take the place it deserves in Spanish gastronomy.

The El Yantar Ranking, published by the regional newspaper El Comercio, recognises us as the best cachopo in Asturias. Eleven years after our first championship, we remain faithful to the same origin.