Spanish food fails to sell abroad despite premium products

Why Spanish cuisine underperforms internationally

A traveler in Belgium recalls seeing Spanish restaurants in Brussels, Liège, Namur, Charleroi and Bruges, even a replica of Salamanca's Plaza Mayor in Malmédy near Spa. Yet the consensus is clear: Spanish gastronomy is undervalued abroad. This is not an isolated impression but a repeated diagnosis: exceptional product, weak storytelling.

The discussion starts with claims that on Anglo-Saxon platforms, Spanish food is perceived as "meh," except for tapas or pinchos which are seen as novelties, ranking below Italian, French, Japanese or Chinese cuisine. The debate then branches into who cooks, what is exported, how it is sold, and what is actually eaten.

What is exported and who cooks it

The most common argument points to foreign kitchens. Many claim Spanish restaurants abroad are often poorly run, adding complaints that foreign customers are served pre-frozen products. The uncomfortable conclusion: it is not that the cuisine is disliked, but that what arrives is not authentic cuisine.

Some add a structural factor: Spanish cooking is VERY complex and time-consuming. Any significant dish takes easily an hour. Only tapas can be exported as fast food. A well-made tortilla de patata (Spanish omelette) is already a project.

The narrative: France and Italy sell, Spain does not

The second line of analysis concerns brand, not taste. Some argue Spain has never known how to market itself, unlike France and Italy. Renaming fish soup as bouillabaisse or presenting vegetable rice as risotto allows doubling prices. The product is the same; the label is not.

This is compounded by diaspora issues. Italy, China and Japan internationalized their food through migrant communities settled in the United States, the trendsetter nation. Spain lacks this lever. Spanish immigration in the 1960s to Belgium, Germany or Switzerland left restaurants, but today it is residual and their clients are no longer Spanish.

The product: ham, cheese and oil with foreign labels

The strongest counterargument lies in the product. Jamón ibérico is world-class and sheep cheeses from Castile accumulate awards at international gastronomy contests. Spanish olive oil, however, is taken to Italy and resold with Italian labels. The raw material is not the problem.

The list of dishes foreigners can name is short: paella, sangría, gazpacho and, hopefully, tortilla de patata. Asking for twelve Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Mexican or Greek dishes is trivial. Spanish cuisine is varied, strong-flavored and hard to fit foreign palates. Selling callos (tripe stew), fabada (bean stew) or Cabrales cheese is not simple marketing.

Paella as a battleground

Within Spain, paella generates its own war. Some call it "crap" without nuance, while others defend that well-made rice with bajoqueta beans, garrofón, rabbit and orange wood fire is fruta. In between, a Valencian with family ties in Albufera admits authentic paella is good, but baked rice, caldero or Zamorana-style rice surpass it. He concludes: foreigners are obsessed with paella, but it is not the best rice you can eat.

The narrative trap: junk food and country brand

The cynical analysis argues that what succeeds globally is junk food: burger joints, pizzerias, kebab shops and little else. Authentic Spanish restaurants abroad are as rare as authentic Italian ones. Comparisons with Greece or Italy, outside tourist circuits, favor no one.

Then there is the country brand. Some claim the rest of the world perceives Spain as a mix of African and banana republic, lacking the exoticism granted to others. This perception affects oil, wine and dishes. There are countries that sell and countries that do not. In cuisine, Spain falls into the latter group.

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With these elements, the question is not if Spanish cuisine is good. It is why a product antiestéticaturing jamón ibérico, award-winning cheeses and oil resold by Italy fails to sit at the global gastronomic conversation table. The unsettling fact: the diaspora that internationalized other cuisines was never Spanish. Without a narrative, there is no menu.