Media: Hola Cocina
Original Title: Los cítricos que aman los grandes chefs
Author: Alicia Hernández
Photography: El Poblet y Miguel Cinteros
Date: 1 de mayo 2025
The Citrus Fruits Loved by Great Chefs
València treasures the largest citrus collection in the world, an authentic Eden where chef Luis Valls finds inspiration to create a tasting menu full of unexpected flavours at El Poblet, far beyond oranges, lemons, and grapefruits.
A burst of colours and aromas greets us as we enter Todolí Citrus Fundació. Vicente Todolí is the creator of this Eden dedicated to citrus, one of the leading experts in contemporary art, who directed the Tate Modern in London (as well as Serralves Museum in Porto and IVAM in València, among other projects). He always dreamed of “coming home” to turn his family’s orchards in Palmera into a botanical garden open to the public and safe from urban development. Since its opening in 2012, many chefs have found in this orchard the fruits with which to enrich their recipes and achieve surprising nuances and textures.
A WALK THROUGH HISTORY
The creation of this centre dedicated to the research and preservation of Mediterranean citrus is not coincidental: Todolí is the fifth generation of a family dedicated to citriculture. Although he left the field for the art world, this project remained on his mind. The final decision was sparked by a trip with Ferran Adrià to Perpignan, where they discovered a potted citrus collection. Back home, Vicente began planting and replanting the orchards with local and exotic varieties. He started with 45 and now tends over 500, spread across the 45,000 m² of this unique space, representing every citrus-growing region on the planet.
Todolí personally guides visitors through a landscape that changes with the seasons. With passion, he shares the origin of each variety, peppering the tour with botanical, artistic, culinary, and even medicinal anecdotes — like how “the British Navy discovered that lemons could cure scurvy, which is why they were always stocked on their ships.”
He explains that citrus fruits first appeared in the wild about eight million years ago at the foot of the Himalayas, and that our current knowledge begins with citron: “The fruit of Citrus medica was the first citrus known in Europe. It was discovered in Media, Persia, by botanists who travelled with Alexander the Great around 350 BC. It reached Greece, as Theophrastus wrote about it, and Palestine, where the etrog plays a central role in Jewish tradition during the Sukkot holiday.” The fruit, carried in one hand, must be from a non-grafted tree and can fetch prices up to $100 or even $200 per piece.
The spread of citrus is also linked to art and collecting: in 16th-century Florence, the Medici family popularised lemon trees and built the first greenhouses — limonaie in Italy, orangeries in France — to protect them from the cold.
While showing us the citrus family tree, Vicente explains that the orange is a hybrid between pomelo and mandarin, and that the lemon results from a cross between citron and bitter orange. Citrus maxima, also known as pummelo, reached the Iberian Peninsula with the Arabs in the 10th century and is a powerful antioxidant.
VALÈNCIA’S ORANGES
Strolling through the trees, we come across tables where citrus fruits are arranged by family, carefully labelled with their scientific names — like Citrus rugoso, with its yellow, brain-like rind, used in Italian sweets. One of the foundation’s technicians slices open a large Pummelo Timor, native to Indonesia, letting us taste its reddish segments. We notice the colour, aroma, and texture, guided by Vicente through a full sensory experience.
Why are València’s oranges so famous? Todolí offers another fascinating story: Lumia di Napoli, the first hybrid between Citrus maxima and Citrus medica, was originally known as Lumia di Valencia. A doctor of Alfonso the Magnanimous took it to Naples, where it survived, while in València it disappeared. Despite such historical twists, València continues to hold some of the world’s most valued citrus specimens. Since the 14th century, lemon, lime and orange groves have flourished here, embedding citrus in the region’s culture and making Spain the world’s leading citrus exporter.
A FINE DINING INGREDIENT
Todolí Citrus Fundació not only preserves varieties: it also studies their gastronomic potential and develops products such as marmalades, chocolate, and sauces made from lesser-known fruits like Japanese yuzu, etrog citron or red Philippine lime.
Citrus fruits are versatile: they can be eaten in segments, used in salads, preserved, or their leaves and peels used for flavouring — even to make healthy sweets or perfumes. The scent of bergamot from the tree itself is intoxicating.
Todolí’s work has captivated top chefs like Ricard Camarena, Albert Raurich, Paco Morales, and especially Luis Valls, who has found in this orchard a never-ending source of inspiration. Chef of El Poblet (2 Michelin stars, 2 Repsol suns), Valls has made citrus the backbone of his tasting menu.
CITRUS RICE & ALBEDO TORRIJA
When Valls first visited the botanical orchard El Bartolí, he could barely identify a dozen varieties. Now he speaks like a citrus botanist. He has introduced citrus into his cuisine with total ease, just as he does with products from Albufera, the Mediterranean, and the Valencian terreta. “We cook València. That’s what defines us,” he says. “Citrus opened up an infinite world. It feels like we’re just getting started.”
Some are truly spectacular — for their size, shape, or texture. “Like cidra rugosa or dragon fly, with its velvety skin and passion fruit notes. I have a very special connection with Todolí’s orchard. It’s a place that awakens creativity.”
From that spirit of exploration came one of his most surprising inventions: the albedo torrija. “Vicente once told me that in Asian cuisine they cook the albedo — the white part between peel and pulp — like soft bread,” Valls recalls. He discussed it with his wife, and the idea of the torrija was born. They blanch the albedo in aromatic milk, fry it, coat it in sugar and cinnamon, and serve it with sourdough ice cream and a citrus vinegar base.
Citrus fruits also decorate El Poblet’s dining room, where Valls finalises dishes, interacts with diners, and showcases traditions such as Valencian sausages or rare ingredients like eel, duck, or red prawns.
Around 80% of the dishes contain citrus, whether as zest or through more elaborate techniques: curing, gels, kombuchas, hydromels, or infusions. “The orchard gives us something different every season. We start in September with Japanese and Australian varieties and continue through July,” says Valls. The meal ends with petit fours served among lemons, oranges, and mandarins: a light apple meringue with citrus compote and oxalis leaf, a white chocolate cream infused with citrus and finger lime caviar, or a polvorón made from ground almond, olive oil and orange.
Restaurante El Poblet
C. Correos, 8, planta 1
Valencia
