Toni Montoliu fronts a campaign linking paella’s international reinventions back to L’Horta and the Albufera ahead of a 12-chef World Paella Day Cup final on 20 September.
World Paella Day 2026 is using global reinterpretations of paella to draw attention back to the dish’s Valencian origins ahead of the 20 September final in La Marina de València. — Credit: Visit Valencia
- World Paella Day 2026 has launched a new international campaign built around the idea that legendary dishes are reinterpreted around the world.
- Toni Montoliu anchors the campaign in L’Horta and the Albufera before chefs from Asia, Europe and the Americas present their own versions of paella.
- Twelve World Paella Day Cup finalists arrive in València from 17 September ahead of the public Grand Final at La Marina de València on 20 September.
- British chef Daniel Taylor is the first UK finalist, entering through the competition’s new wild-card route alongside 11 chefs who qualified internationally.
(NEWS) VALÈNCIA, Valencian Community, Spain, 2026-Sep-16 — /Travel PR News/ — València is turning its best-known dish into a global destination-marketing story again this September, launching a new World Paella Day 2026 campaign that celebrates the many ways paella has been reinterpreted around the world while bringing the conversation back to its Valencian origins.
The campaign, led by the Visit València Foundation with support from València City Council, Turisme Comunitat Valenciana and the València Provincial Council, uses the idea that cultural icons generate “cover versions” once they become legends. Its central message — “When something becomes a legend, it is reinterpreted around the world” — frames paella as both a local culinary tradition and a piece of food culture that has travelled far beyond Spain.
The campaign video begins with Toni Montoliu, one of València’s best-known paella ambassadors, linking the dish to L’Horta and the Albufera before chefs from Asia, Europe and the Americas present their own interpretations. The result is less a debate about one definitive recipe than a tourism campaign built around provenance: the many versions may be international, but the story repeatedly returns to València.
Food culture becomes a destination-marketing tool
For the city, the timing is deliberate. World Paella Day falls on 20 September, close to the rice harvest in the Albufera, giving València a way to connect an international food event with the landscape, ingredients and agricultural traditions that shaped the dish.
The campaign will run across regional media, digital advertising and city MUPIs, while social channels and the international World Paella Day community extend the message into overseas markets.
That makes the initiative relevant beyond gastronomy. Culinary travel has become an important part of how destinations differentiate themselves, and València is using paella as an entry point into a wider visitor story that includes the Albufera wetlands, rice-growing areas, local markets and the city’s broader food culture.
The official Visit València tourism platform regularly positions paella within what it calls the “Mediterranean Pantry”, connecting the dish with local rice, vegetables, seafood and the surrounding agricultural landscape.
Toni Montoliu anchors the campaign in L’Horta
Montoliu gives the international creative concept a recognisably local starting point. Based in Meliana, north of the city, he has long been associated with traditional Valencian cooking and with the farm-to-table culture of L’Horta.
His appearance in the campaign is designed to establish origin before the film moves outward. Chefs in other parts of the world then reinterpret paella in their own culinary languages, reinforcing the campaign’s central argument that global adaptation is itself evidence of the dish’s reach.
World Paella Day is therefore presenting culinary variation as an asset rather than a threat to authenticity, while continuing to emphasise the knowledge, ingredients and traditions associated with València.
Twelve international chefs arrive ahead of the final
The campaign also acts as the lead-in to the World Paella Day Cup 2026. The 12 finalists are due to arrive in València on 17 September for a programme intended to immerse them in the region’s rice culture before the competition.
Their schedule includes masterclasses with Santos Ruiz of D.O. Arroz de València, inaugural World Paella Day Cup champion Chabe Soler and paella specialist Rafa Margós. The idea is that competitors should learn more about Valencian ingredients and techniques before creating their own versions in the final.
The finalists represent countries across the Americas, Europe and Asia. Eleven qualified through international rounds, while Britain enters through the competition’s new wild-card route with Daniel Taylor, the first UK chef to reach the World Paella Day Cup final.
Taylor joins chefs from Uruguay, Brazil, Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia, Romania, France, Switzerland, Denmark, Bulgaria and Japan, giving the competition a deliberately international field.
The final turns La Marina into a public food event
The finalists will be formally presented at the València Conference Centre on 18 September before the main event at La Marina de València on Sunday, 20 September.
The final will run as a public celebration combining live cooking, Valencian products, music and entertainment. Organisers say the competition can also be followed online through the official World Paella Day livestream, extending the event beyond visitors who can attend in person.
The official competition rules confirm that finalists will compete in València on 20 September after an international qualifying programme held during 2026.
For visitors, the event adds another layer to a September city break: rather than encountering paella only as a restaurant dish, travellers can see how the region presents its food heritage to chefs from different culinary traditions and how those chefs reinterpret it in return.
A campaign built around global reinterpretation and local origin
That tension between origin and adaptation is the core of the 2026 campaign. Paella has become familiar in restaurants and home kitchens around the world, often with ingredients or techniques that differ significantly from those used in València.
Instead of treating those differences simply as dilution, the campaign uses them to illustrate cultural reach. The destination message is that the dish can evolve internationally while its historical and geographical point of reference remains València.
For the city’s tourism sector, that gives World Paella Day a dual purpose: it promotes a major September event while also reinforcing València’s association with a food tradition that travellers can experience year-round through its markets, rice fields, coastal communities and restaurants.
More information about the 20 September celebration and competition is available from World Paella Day.
