The versatile ingredient from Granada's Costa Tropical that works in sweet and savoury dishes

Zoom

This year’s custard apple recipe competition brought together professional and amateur chefs in Almuñécar and Jete - two of the most important custard apple-growing areas in Europe

Sergio Sebastiani

Tuesday, 16 December 2025, 09:26

When we think of dishes made with custard apple, or chirimoya, as it is known in Spanish, the first things that come to mind are desserts. However, the creativity and inventiveness of chefs also make the most of this subtropical fruit as an ingredient for starters or first courses, as demonstrated in the third 'Concurso de Recetas de Chirimoya' (custard apple recipe competition) organised by the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) association. Several professional and amateur chefs have once again demonstrated that this fruit is very versatile and suitable for combining and creating new flavours.

The event brought together in Almuñécar and Jete in Granada province - two of the most important custard apple-growing areas in Europe - 12 chefs who have continued the work of increasing the number of dishes that can be made with it. The aim of this event is to highlight the subtropical fruit, which is grown mainly on Granada's Costa Tropical and the neighbouring Costa del Sol.

Granada has its own variety, Fino de Jete, which is the one used in this competition. In this town in the Río Verde Valley, it was selected by farmers back in 1880, as attested to by old land registry documents from a Jete site called 'El Chirimoyo', which was home to the oldest plantation in the area, according to the PDO.

The winner of this year's competition in the professional category was Sergio González, chef of the Firmvm restaurant in Almuñécar, who dominated the podium for the second year running, as another of his cooks, Arianne Galindo, came third.

Since last year, the event has two different categories, with the addition of an amateur category. The winner in this category was Mabel Viera Cerda with her recipe 'Chirimoya más que alegre', followed by Lidia Fernández Joya with 'Panacota de chirimoya' and Ana Laura Farrás with her 'Dulce delicia'.

 Courage and inventiveness 

González's custard apple macaroni with carbonara sauce was the winning dish, which he made with a custard apple jelly with agar to create the macaroni, which he shaped with a homemade stainless steel cylindrical contraption. He accompanied them with a parmesan foam with spiced custard apple pulp, to which he added truffle and foie gras, among other ingredients. "It's risky, because the custard apple is sweet, but the contrast with the foie, the parmesan and the truffle was fun on the palate," he says when explaining his choice. A dish which González himself places as a "main course, although it would be better for a tasting menu".

His Mazamorra of custard apple and fig, he described as "a kind of ajoblanco of custard apple with figs, grapes, a squid ink biscuit with a black garlic mouse, caviar from Riofrío, dried octopus and shrimp from Motril".

Second place on the podium in the professional category went to the Granada chef Silvia Huete, with a dish entitled 'Ella', a salad which included custard apples. Third place went to Arianne Galindo, and her 'El Valle de Río Verde', a dish which imitated a custard apple tree using yoghurt and custard apple ganache with white chocolate, with candyfloss to imitate the custard apple foliage.

González explained, "when I was a child I used to watch my grandfather picking custard apples" and added, "In the restaurant we have many dishes made with custard apples, from desserts such as Luna de Almuñécar, which is a custard apple mousse that we have been making different versions of, sometimes with mango or white chocolate, to savoury dishes such as tataki with custard apple ajoblanco".

González plans to promote the participation in this competition of students from hotel and catering schools and also chefs from other areas. At the same time, he is both optimistic and surprised by the "exceptional level" observed in the amateur section of the competition, in which some of the recipes that were prepared "are worthy of professional chefs". He also highlighted the good atmosphere between the contestants, who, beyond competing, share ideas and are on the same side when it comes to promoting a product which is an emblem of the Costa Tropical's agriculture.