Pepe Solla

The Climb

Palate training came first through wine and service. Pepe Solla trained at Unión Española de Catadores and Cala Montjoi, then returned to Casa Solla in Poio, Pontevedra, Spain, where he worked as restaurant staff / sommelier from 1991. That route matters in the kitchen: aroma, texture, temperature, sequence, and table rhythm were learned through the glass before they were applied at the stove. The service lineage became formal in 1994, when Solla became a founding member at Asociación Gallega de Sumilleres in Galicia, Spain. By 1995, the same palate moved into production as kitchen assistant at Casa Solla in Poio, Pontevedra, Spain. The shift was not a replacement of wine work with cooking, but an extension of it: ingredients, technique, and service pressure entered the same field of judgment. A family restaurant requires continuity as a working discipline. Since 1999, Pepe has been head of kitchen, manager, and owner of Casa Solla, joining kitchen command, dining-room intelligence, and business responsibility in one address. The craft here includes stewardship: keeping the house legible while allowing the cooking and service to keep changing.

Today

Casa Solla in Poio, Spain, now functions as the fixed point where Solla’s service, wine, and kitchen training meet. The cooking is best understood through that formation: not a plate treated in isolation, but a sequence of decisions involving product, pour, pacing, and reception at the table. Continuity is part of the method. Rather than building a career through a series of addresses, Solla’s work has concentrated around one house, one Galician landscape, and one evolving restaurant language. Staying in place has made the restaurant’s identity clearer, not static: Poio remains the anchor, while the practice keeps adjusting inside it.

Signature

Signature dishes include Centolla y R’n’R. The name places centolla, spider crab associated with Atlantic tables, beside a loose contemporary signal. It marks the dish as a conversation between product and tempo: tradition is present, but not treated as a museum object.

In Their Words Market dialogue is part of the mise en place in coastal cooking. Solla’s line points to the dependence on the fishmonger’s daily knowledge: what came in, what condition it is in, and what the kitchen can responsibly build from it. For a restaurant working close to the sea, that conversation is operational, not anecdotal.

Recognition

Recognition spans both restaurant craft and wine craft. Pepe's honors include One Michelin star for Casa Solla, Three Repsol Suns for Casa Solla, and Galician Sommelier Championship winner. Read together, they show the range of the practice: restaurant distinction for Casa Solla, national Spanish recognition through Repsol, and a sommelier title that remains visible in the way service and palate structure the work.