14–22 November 2026 · Benimantell, Vall de Guadalest
For nine days every November, the restaurants of Benimantell cook the same dish, and no two make it the same way. This year the Semana Gastronómica de l’Olleta de Blat runs from Saturday 14 to Sunday 22 November. If you have ever wanted a reason to come up into the Guadalest valley out of season, this is it.
What olleta de blat is
Blat is Valencian for wheat. Olleta de blat is a mountain stew in which whole wheat takes the place that chickpeas take everywhere else in Spain.
You will not find it in Madrid, in Barcelona or even in the city of Valencia. It belongs to the Marina Baixa and the Marina Alta, and practically nowhere else. It is the dish that sets the cooking of this valley apart from everything around it.
The grain is hulled and soaked for twelve hours, then cooked slowly for two hours with the beans. That water is thrown away and the stew begins again: fried ñora pepper, pork, and whatever the garden gives in winter, chard, chard stem, turnip and carrot.
It was poor people’s food in the honest sense. Before the fire was lit, the wheat had been sown, reaped, threshed, winnowed in the wind and hulled by hand. Nobody did all that on a Tuesday. The olleta was a winter dish, and a Sunday one.
The week
During the week, each restaurant in Benimantell serves a menu built around the olleta. In past years these menus have cost between €27 and €35 a person. On the first Saturday, the Festa de l’Olleta fills the Plaza Mayor: the big pots out in the street and the whole village around them.
The rest of the year you have to ask. Most places make olleta one day a week, and when it runs out it is gone. Some will cook it for you with a day’s notice. During the week, you don’t have to ask.
Where to eat it in Benimantell
All of these are a few minutes from the door of Casa Oliveta. Almost all are family-run, and at almost all of them you should book.
- Ca Rafel. The oil with the bread is from their own harvest, and they say so on the menu. Lorena Sales, who runs it, will come out and explain the olleta if you ask. They make it regularly, not only in November.
- Venta La Montaña. A dining room that keeps the spirit of 1910, with a fire you won’t want to leave. Valley sobrassada with local honey, and a wine list almost entirely from Alicante.
- El Trestellador. Outside the village, with the whole valley in front of you and, on a clear day, the sea. Order the pericana and the espencat too.
- Casa Sonia (Sonia L’Obrer). Under the trees in summer, inside by the fire in winter. One of the most reliable in the village: it opens when it says it opens.
- Ponsoda, Contemple and El Rincón de Pepe complete the list.
Stay for the week at Casa Oliveta
Casa Oliveta is a 1900s village house in Benimantell, restored and let as a whole: four bedrooms for up to six guests, a heated saltwater pool, a wood-fired oven and a rooftop terrace looking up at Aitana. Our bedrooms are named after the olive varieties pressed in this valley: Arbequina, Blanqueta and Manzanilla.
Come for the Festa on the first Saturday and stay the weekend. Eat olleta for lunch, walk it off along the reservoir, and come home to the fire. Check dates and book direct for our best price.
Want the rest of the valley’s cooking: pericana, minxos, espencat and the twenty-odd family dining rooms of the valley? Download The Table, our free guide to eating in the Vall de Guadalest.