Diego Sandoval News · Dining room
Thirty years in the dining room: Juan Diego Sandoval, from learning at home to setting the standard
Madrid, 1972. Self-taught. More than thirty years in his family's business. Spanish National Gastronomy Award for Best Dining Room Director and, seven years later, the Montagud Award for Best Maître d'. The Royal Academy of Gastronomy summed up his work in three adjectives that remain the best definition of Coque's dining room: elegant, dynamic and warm.
There are two ways to learn the craft of the dining room. One is school: protocol, carving, the wine list, the exam. The other is to grow up inside a dining room that is also your home, to watch your father and grandfather serve tables before you are old enough to carry plates, and never to sense a boundary between working and being with family. Juan Diego Sandoval is the second case, and that explains a good deal about how he understands service.
Self-taught, with thirty years in the classroom
Born in Madrid in 1972, Sandoval has more than three decades in the family business. The sources that document his career agree on the word self-taught: he did not leave a hospitality school with the craft already learned; he built it from the inside. It is a common biography in the Spanish dining room of his generation, and one that is hard to replicate today, because it requires a house that lasts long enough to teach.
That background lies behind the phrase the Montagud Awards used to describe him when they named him Best Maître d' in 2023: «a born taverner», host of one of the finest dining rooms in Spain. It is not praise for technique. It is praise for origin.
2016 · 2023
Two awards, seven years apart
The Royal Academy of Gastronomy gave him the Spanish National Gastronomy Award for Best Dining Room Director for 2016, which he received from the Minister of Culture. In its citation, the Academy described a dining room that is «elegant, dynamic and warm» and that has clearly contributed to the recognition Coque has earned.
In 2023 came the Montagud Award for Best Maître d', in the first edition of awards given by the gastronomic publishing industry itself. Between the two, seven years of service without changing house.
What he understands by service
Asked about the National Award, Sandoval gave an answer that is not the usual one in an award interview: «recognition comes from a career». The phrase shifts the merit from one particular year to thirty, which is also how the dining room works: nobody notices it in a single service; it shows in the sum.
His definition of good service has three words and one condition. The words: fresh, current and warm. The condition: that it rests on empathy and harmony.
«When that harmony exists, the guest can feel it».
It is a more demanding statement than it seems, because it moves the measure of quality to a place where there is no checklist. A dish can be corrected in the kitchen. The harmony of a dining room team cannot be corrected at nine in the evening: either it has been built beforehand or it is not there. Hence his own summary of what happens in Coque's dining room: «things happen that are not normal and that surprise the guest».
The craft, beyond Coque
The least-known part of his work happens far from Marqués del Riscal. Sandoval sits on the jury of the Waiter of the Year Competition, teaches and, in 2026, launched together with Bayas Talent the first HIP Awards «La Sala, Otra Mirada», awards devoted exclusively to service. It is a line of work consistent with his own biography: someone who learned the craft inside a house knows that the craft only continues if someone teaches it.
One third of a full set
His National Award did not come alone. Mario Sandoval received the award for Best Head Chef in 2013 and Rafael Sandoval the award for Best Sommelier in 2017: the three brothers hold all three National Awards for the three disciplines of a restaurant. Kitchen, dining room and wine cellar: three crafts and one house.
Frequently asked questions
- What awards does Juan Diego Sandoval hold?
- The 2016 Spanish National Gastronomy Award for Best Dining Room Director, granted by the Royal Academy of Gastronomy, and the 2023 Montagud Award for Best Maître d'.
- How does the Royal Academy of Gastronomy describe his dining room?
- As a dining room that is «elegant, dynamic and warm», and that has clearly contributed to the recognition Coque has earned.
- How long has he been in the profession?
- More than thirty years in the family business. He was born in Madrid in 1972 and is self-taught, trained inside the house.
- Who runs the dining room at Coque restaurant?
- Juan Diego Sandoval. His brother Mario runs the kitchen and his brother Rafael the wine cellar.
Sources
- Juan Diego Sandoval, Premio Nacional de Gastronomía 2016 al Mejor Director de Sala, Indisa (in Spanish).
- Juan Diego Sandoval recibe el Premio Nacional de Gastronomía 2016 al Mejor Director de Sala, A Fuego Lento (in Spanish).
- La I Edición de los Premios Montagud Editores, Gastronomía & Cía, (in Spanish).
- Juan Diego Sandoval: «El reconocimiento llega por la trayectoria», Pomarus (in Spanish).
- Juan Diego Sandoval, jury of the Waiter of the Year Competition.
More about the team: Diego Sandoval, maître d' · Mario Sandoval, chef · Rafael Sandoval, sommelier · The experience, step by step
