Who is Yolanda León & Juanjo Pérez?
Chefs and owners of Cocinandos. Passionate about reinvented traditional cuisine
Cocinandos was founded by Juanjo Pérez and Yolanda León, with the idea of exploiting creativity, based on their knowledge of the product and the culinary techniques. The project is that of a young and dynamic team, desiring to contribute their vision of an updated Leonese cuisine
They are two chefs who have learnt at some of the best restaurants in Spain.
Juanjo studied cooking at the school of Hostel and Tourism in Madrid. On finishing his studies, he started working in different restaurants of the capital city. One day, at the age of 19, he had the opportunity to work at Arzak, in San Sebastian. Here, he got acquainted with the new cuisine, and from then onwards, he started his path, and worked for different spaces such as La Broche, Amparo, Echaurren….
Yolanda, on the other hand, was born in Leon, moved to Galicia to study in Catering and Hospitality business in Santiago de Compostela. There, as in the case of Juanjo she had the marvellous opportunity to go to work with Juan Mari Arzak ( and she did not doubt). She got to know cuisines spots such as Casa Marcelo, Echaurren, Mateo…Yolanda has been sharing her work at COCINANDOS with the CIFP Ciudad de León, where she gives lessons to cooking cycles as technical cooking teaching since the year 1998.
Cocinandos has no menu, just a tasting menu, changing every 15 days, depending on the product found, on a daily basis, in the market. We prefer to renew, more than innovate. In Cocinandos you will find traditional dishes of Spanish gastronomy, yet prepared with the most current ideas and techniques that will allow us to improve what was good before. We only have one menu, varied and always variable, because we prepare it based on the quality of products found every day in the market.
Such a menu is made up with an aperitif, a soup, a salad, fish, meat and a dessert.
Their cuisine can be denominated as an updated market Leonese cuisine.
The restaurant's decor is minimalist, and an attractive detail is that the kitchen is in the middle of the dining room, so, you can see how they cook, evidencing there is nothing to hide, and demonstrating that the main character in their cuisine is the product.
They also offer a wide wine menu, with more than 400 national denominated reference wines, as well as some international wines.
The resto is located next to the church and the national San Marcos parador.
In their 18 years of history, they have gained certain recognition such as two Repsol suns and a Michelin star.
