El Racó de Pere i Pepa

Where the Road from Jumilla Brings You

The approach to El Pinós from Jumilla sets the tone before you arrive. This is inland Alicante province, a stretch of territory where the coast's tourist economy feels genuinely distant, and where the agricultural rhythms of the meseta, truffles, rabbit, goat, rice grown in the pockets of irrigated lowland, still shape what ends up on the plate. El Racó de Pere i Pepa sits on the avenue leading into town, with a terrace at the entrance that signals hospitality before you open the door. Inside, the two-floor interior takes a rustic-contemporary approach: the materials and proportions are vernacular, but the finish is considered rather than merely nostalgic. This is a space that takes its work seriously without performing seriousness.

The dining room is run by Pepa, whose presence gives the floor a consistency and attentiveness that defines the guest experience as much as the food. Kitchens in smaller Spanish towns have historically run on this dual-role model, one partner cooking, the other managing, and it tends to produce a particular kind of coherence.

The Kitchen's Argument for Inland Alicante

El Racó de Pere i Pepa has held the Bib Gourmand in both 2024 and 2025, consecutive recognition that reflects consistency rather than a single impressive meal. Chef Juan Carlos Rodríguez Curpa works an à la carte alongside a tasting menu, and the kitchen's stated purpose is the rediscovery of inland Alicante's flavours. That phrase carries more weight than it might appear to. The province's interior, separated from the coastal strip by the sierras, has its own product identity, built around wild herbs, game, truffle-bearing oak woodland, and the rice cultivation of the river valleys. This is not the paella country that tourists associate with the Valencian coast; it is something older and less photographed.

Rice, Truffle, and the Logic of the Menu

Rice dishes form the structural backbone of the menu, and the version with rabbit, snails, and truffle has become the clearest expression of the kitchen's point of view. The combination is regional in its base, rabbit and snails appear in Valencian rice culture dating back centuries, but the truffle lifts it toward something more current. That tension between the archetypal and the contemporary runs through the menu more broadly: tenderloin with foie gras, apple, and port wine sauce sits alongside traditionally roasted shoulder of goat, the latter a dish where the technique is the argument. Slow-roasted goat shoulder in this part of Spain is not a revival or a conceptual gesture; it is a living tradition that the kitchen is choosing to maintain and present without apology.

The tasting menu format allows the kitchen to sequence these ideas, moving between the regional and the more modern Mediterranean register at its own pace. The €€ price positioning places El Racó de Pere i Pepa well within reach of a broad audience, including travellers making a deliberate detour into the Alicante interior rather than staying on the coast.

Seasonal Calendar and When to Go

Two themed food days give the year a structure worth planning around. In March, a truffle-dedicated event draws on the local harvest from the oak woodlands of the inland sierras; in November, the focus shifts to suckling pig. Both events reflect a kitchen that treats seasonality as a calendar of specific products rather than a generic commitment to freshness. Truffle season in inland Spain peaks between December and March, so the March date captures late-season product at its most concentrated. November's suckling pig event aligns with the cooler temperatures when the dish makes fullest sense, and with a quieter period on the Spanish rural tourism calendar when the terrace and interior operate at a more comfortable pace.