i. Biography
In Meliana, the kitchen is set by what the garden and nearby growers send in. At Napicol, Chemo Rausell works from that exchange, letting slow fire, local produce, and the day’s offerings determine the line of cooking. The restaurant reads less like a fixed program than a place calibrated to soil, season, and hand.
Coming Up
Training at CDT gave Chemo Rausell a base before he moved on to Duna for his prácticas, where the work was shaped through the role of intern / trainee. Those early stages already point to the terms that define his cooking now: discipline, attention, and a cuisine tied to memory, structure, and place. At Napicol, that foundation has settled into a style that is grounded and clear.
Where They Are Now
At Napicol, Chemo Rausell runs the kitchen as chef and owner, with the menu responding to what comes from the garden and from nearby growers rather than holding to a fixed script. The adjacent organic garden is part of the restaurant’s daily rhythm, not a display piece, and it helps set the limits and possibilities of service. That approach leaves space for off-menu dishes and for course changes that follow the demands of product and supplier. Rice dishes anchor the house. The language around the cooking — spoon, legumes, slow fire — places it in a Valencian and domestic register where time is part of the method. Broths are allowed to deepen, pulses to soften, and rice to take on the character of its stock until the dish reads as fully worked through. Sardina en escabeche is one of the house’s defining plates. In Chemo Rausell’s hands, it is described as subtle, elegant, and citrusy, with the reach of a preservation method that still carries freshness and intensity. It captures the restaurant’s discipline in a single preparation: measured, exact, and direct.
Signature
Chemo Rausell is a chef whose craft focus is rice dishes.
In Their Words “Sardines in escabeche are capable of transcending the limits of time; far from being a mere preservation method, they are subtle, elegant, and citrusy.” “I realized, almost at the end of my degree, that it was not my thing. I had to look for something new, and I searched my father's library, where I found cookbooks.”
Honors
The recognition around his work comes from the coherence of the kitchen at Napicol: rice at the center, garden-led cooking, legumes, slow fire, and a sardina en escabeche that has become one of the house dishes. It is a cuisine built on detail, restraint, and the practical logic of place.
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Chemo
Where did Chemo Rausell train or study?
Chemo Rausell trained at CDT.
What is Chemo Rausell known for?
Rice dishes.
