Vallarta Nayarit Gastronómica 2025
A flagship of the bay’s culinary calendar returns with a clear thesis. Food is culture, identity, economy, and tourism. This year’s congress sets up its main stage at Paradise Village Resort & Spa in Riviera Nayarit from October 12–18, 2025. The program aims to do more than entertain. It wants guests to look up from their phones and connect with the people behind each plate.
The tone was set by Puerto Vallarta’s tourism officials, who framed the week as both a celebration and a signal. The event now anchors the bay on the international map of haute cuisine, bringing repeat visitors and new travelers who plan trips around a table.
A week built for serious palates
Organizers will again blend classrooms with kitchens. Expect show cookings, tastings, conferences, and gourmet workshops designed for professionals and curious diners alike. The format reflects lessons learned since 2009, when the congress started as a training space for restaurateurs and hoteliers. It expanded, adapted through the pandemic, and now operates as a full festival.
The 2024 edition offered more than 70 activities and drew over 14,000 attendees. This year’s plan is tighter by design—more than 50 activities across six days—prioritizing depth, craft, and conversation over raw volume.
Why it matters for the region
The week is a draw for travelers who spend widely and locally. Officials stress the transversal impact of gastronomic tourism. Restaurants, hotels, and airlines feel it first. Farmers, fishers, and artisans feel it next through ingredient sourcing and tableware sales. That secondary impact often outlasts the event, especially when visiting chefs keep buying from newly discovered producers.
For Jalisco and Nayarit, the festival also functions as a brand statement. It tells a familiar story in fresh ways: native ingredients matter, technique serves tradition, and the kitchen is a bridge between visitors and place.
Who will be on stage
The guest list blends Michelin-starred names, 50 Best honorees, and faces from Top Chef editions. Confirmed participants span Mexico, Latin America, the United States, and Europe. Expect fine-dining innovators, fire-focused cooks, and traditional guardians who lead with origin and memory.
Among the chefs announced are Miguel Ángel de la Cruz (La Botica de Matapozuelos, Spain), Kisko García (Choco, Spain), Rubén Sánchez (Epílogo, Spain), and Carlos Gaytán (Tzuco; Chicago and Riviera Maya). Mexico’s contingent features Mario Hernández (El Califa de León), Paco Ruano (Alcalde/Mayor; Guadalajara), Óscar Segundo and Xrysw Ruelas (Xokol; Guadalajara), Abel Hernández (Culinaria Chic; CDMX), and Nasheli Martínez (Fabia Cocina de Campo; CDMX, certified sommelier). Latin America and the Caribbean are well represented by Janaína Torres (A Casa do Porco; São Paulo), Heinz Wuth (Science and Cooking; Santiago de Chile), Inés Páez Nin, Francis Peña, and Rodolfo García (Dominican Republic).
The mix is intentional. The program is built to cross-pollinate techniques and terroirs while keeping the Bay of Banderas as the throughline.
Tickets and access
The Total Access Gourmet Pro pass, priced at $3,500 pesos, grants full access to the in-person congress on Monday, Oct. 13, and Tuesday, Oct. 14. It includes a welcome kit, entrance to showcookings, tastings, and workshops, admission to the expo area, and smoke-cooking sessions in the Proinox zone.
For diners seeking quieter rooms and deeper menus, organizers will host private dinners with visiting chefs. These evenings typically sell out first. They are also where producers, hoteliers, and chefs tend to make the connections that echo after the lights go down.
From training forum to cultural force
Over sixteen previous editions, the congress has moved from seminars on sales and digital strategy to a platform where traditional cooks share the stage with award-winning chefs. That shift mirrors how travelers choose destinations. They want flavor, yes, but also stories with roots. Even during the pandemic years, the event held a reduced in-person program and streamed content to keep that conversation alive.
This year’s theme—“Connecting Minds, Connecting Souls”—pushes that idea further. The director, Consuelo Elipe, puts it plainly: in a hyperconnected world, we are often disconnected from each other. The fix, at least for a week, is to put down the phone, watch a sauce come together, taste it warm, and talk with the person who made it.
Vallarta Nayarit Gastronómica 2025 is built as a bridge: between disciplines, between states, and between the people who grow, catch, cook, and eat. It is also a bet that culinary culture can shape the region’s next decade of tourism, not just the next season.
The organizers, sponsors, and public agencies backing this edition are clear about the stakes. The bay’s future depends on experiences that carry meaning. Few carry it as convincingly as a table set with local hands and global skill.
