In March this year, Kuala Lumpur restaurant Bocado brought cousins Julio Sotomayor and Daniel Guzman of one Michelin-starred Nova in Galicia, Spain to cook for a special dinner called Journey to Galicia: Chapter One.
The clue was in the title as the first chapter naturally led to the second, a spectacular seafood-led dinner last month presented by another Galician chef Inaki Bretal of Michelin-starred O Eirado in Spain.
The culmination of this three-part series? A final dinner titled The Galicia Dinner: Chapter Three with chef Rafael Centeno of one Michelin-starred Restaurante Vertigo, another Spanish stalwart championing Galician cuisine.
This last dinner in the Galician series will be held on 29 May 2026 at 6pm and 8.30pm. The eight-course dinner is priced at RM438++ per person.
Centeno was born in Lugo in Galicia and is a self-taught cook. His first restaurant Maruja Limon earned a Michelin star in 2010 while his second restaurant Vertigo in Lugo earned a Michelin star in 2025, making it the first restaurant to earn a Michelin star in Lugo in 97 years!
But behind all these star-studded Galician chefs is Bocado’s own head chef Victor Santos, who has been instrumental in bringing these top guns to Malaysian shores.
Santos’ aim was to gently introduce Malaysian diners to the food of his homeland by getting them to try it directly through some of the best culinary mavens from the region.
Galicia sits in the northwestern corner of Spain and is surrounded by Atlantic waters. As a consequence, it is renowned for its rich bounty of seafood, from Galician octopus to scallops, razor clams and goose barnacles.
The area is also famous for Rubia Gallega cattle, hailed as some of the best beef in the world and Ternera Gallega, which is the area’s award-winning veal.
“I'm from Galicia and Galicia is considered one of the best regions for food in Spain. So since I'm from Galicia, we tried to bring something authentic to KL.
“Because now we have a few Spanish restaurants in KL, but more or less all of them are doing the same thing like tapas and paella.
“So at Bocado, we are trying to specialise only in the cuisine of the north of Spain, especially in Galicia. And so we decided to bring three Michelin-starred chefs to represent three regions in Galicia: Ourense, Pontevedra and Lugo – so three different chefs and three different ways to see Galician food,” he says, laughing.
Santos says response to these Galician dinners has been so overwhelming that typically, there have been over 120 diners on their wait list!
“We are bringing three Michelin-starred chefs in only three months, so these are all exclusive dinners. And the benefit of this is you are already in KL; you don’t need to travel to Spain to try this menu,” he says.
Having done a slow simmer introduction to Galician cuisine over the course of three months, Santos hopes to introduce more Galician ingredients and dishes onto Bocado’s menu to tie in with the restaurant’s original intent of moving towards a more Galician direction.
“We will be changing Bocado’s menu on 1 June 2026, right after the final dinner. So our new menu will feature 80% Galician dishes,” says Santos.
To reserve your seat for The Galicia Journey: Chapter III on 29 May, call 012 923 3206.
