Currency
Language
Behind the scenes of every memorable and successful restaurant lies the dedicated effort of not just the chef de cuisine, his assistants and waiters, but also the creative individuals in charge of presenting the restaurant’s story to the world.
To find out what it takes to cultivate successful culinary stories that allow restaurants and local, authentic cuisine to thrive, we talked to Victor M. Diaz, CEO of GOMA. His agency is based in Malaga, Spain and focuses on providing communication, design, photography, press, and communication strategies for gastronomy and agri-food companies. Throughout the years, they have successfully turned numerous local restaurants and businesses into globally recognizable stories in Andalusia and beyond.
We hope this overview will inspire even more travelers and our customers landing in Malaga to explore the remarkable gastronomy of this region.
What is the story behind GOMA and how did you end up representing business specifically in the field of gastronomy?
GOMA’s story is, above all, a story of hard work—work carried out to a very high standard and sustained consistently over time. Just as importantly, the people around us have played a decisive role. Figures such as Paco Lago, Álvaro Arbeloa of Ta-Kumi, Dani Carnero of Kaleja, and Carlos García of Areia helped us grow and establish ourselves within the gastronomic world through their trust and recommendations.
Malaga has established itself as one of the most popular (and growing) destinations in Spain. What is unique about its cuisine and food culture?
Malaga is, without any doubt, the gastronomic driving force of Andalusia, and one of the most important culinary destinations in Spain today. Its geography is a privilege in itself, and when that is combined with the extraordinary calibre of chefs who have chosen to build their projects here, the result is a food scene with real personality and strength. Malaga does not need major investment groups in order to stand out; its value lies in its territory, its talent and its identity.
What do you think is the most important factor that determines the ultimate success or failure of a restaurant?
A restaurant’s success or failure is often shaped by the structure and people behind it from the very beginning. The decisions you make around the kitchen, the dining room or communication can take a project in completely different directions. We see this first-hand all the time: restaurants with genuinely strong ideas but without the communication support they need to reach the public. And if people do not know you well enough, even the best concept can struggle to survive.
Do you have any cooperations with local government authorities, tourist boards and NGOs?
We regularly collaborate with local councils, universities, NGOs and gastronomic academies whenever they need our support. We make our clients’ content available quickly and generously, so these institutions can build their campaigns without unnecessary complexity, and with quality material that is genuinely useful to them. For us, that is simply one way of contributing and giving something back.
What do you think is the one hidden gem among the culinary experiences available in Andalusia that does not get as much attention as it deserves?
I often think of Mesón Sabor Andaluz and Pedrito Aguilera as a restaurant and a chef that deserve far more attention within Andalusia’s culinary scene. Its location—Alcalá del Valle, a small village in the Sierra de Cádiz—its honest, family-driven identity, and its deep commitment to its surroundings and community make it a truly important project. In general, smaller towns tend to receive far less attention than regional capitals, despite the fact that many of them are home to technically brilliant and deeply meaningful restaurants. Jaime Tejedor at El Alimentario in Torre del Mar is another clear example: a chef with experience across kitchens of every level, who has built a house where the food is excellent and the wine even better, yet remains outside the main local spotlight simply because media attention is still so heavily concentrated in the capital.
Everyone has heard about Barcelona's overtourism problem, but are there any such concerns in Malaga, especially where affordability of eating out is concerned?
There is certainly an underlying concern, although our sector, in many ways, also benefits from it. The issues that worry us most are housing and infrastructure, because the city is growing at a pace its services are not keeping up with. Congested roads, overstretched hospitals and the near impossibility of finding reasonably priced housing are probably the most pressing concerns. Naturally, the rising cost of eating out is one of the consequences of this broader reality. And that is where another important shift becomes clear: there are fewer and fewer Spaniards dining in gastronomic restaurants. For that reason, we cannot frame international visitors as the problem; in many cases, they are part of the solution.
What is next for GOMA and where do you see yourself in a few years?
GOMA is expanding. We have effectively reached our ceiling in Malaga, so the next step is to strengthen our presence in provinces such as Granada, Cádiz and Seville, while continuing to position ourselves as a solid long-term partner in gastronomic communication. We have built an in-house team specifically designed to work with projects over time—projects that deserve to be told properly, consistently and with depth. That is very different from the more common agency model built around independent freelancers, who are often unable to sustain real coherence and communicative cohesion in the long term, and whose structure can feel more like a kind of gastronomic coworking than a true communication and design team.
----
Once again, we’d like to express our sincere gratitude to Mr. Diaz and the entire GOMA team for sharing these insights with us. We wish them and their clients much success in the future as they work to promote the unique spirit of Málaga.
