Manuel Maria Puga y Parga

Manuel Maria Puga y Parga aka "Picadillo" (Santiago de Compostela 1874 - A Coruña, September 30, 1918), was a culinary writer and gastronome who popularized and updated traditional Galician cooking methods. He is a legendary figure among Spanish chefs and gourmands. He was also a lawyer and a politician.

He had a huge sense of humour and he had no problem using it even about himself. For his political Biography, he wrote: "In 1882 I was an eight years old man weighting about 75 Kg". His excessive weight (reportedly reached 275 kg) made him well known. According to writer Luis Anton de Olmert, a circus visited A Coruña showing a German man as the fattest one in the world, but people got disappointed saying: "Manolo Puga is fatter and you can see him down the street ".

Born in Santiago de Compostela (Galicia, Spain). He was baptized on April 23, 1874, in San Fiz de Solovio, but since he was very young he lived in A Coruña.

His father, Luciano Puga Blanco, was a professor at Faculty of Law and also Mayor of Santiago de Compostela, as well as Dean of College of Lawyers of A Coruña, Governor of Bank of Spain in Cuba, Congressman, Senator and Supreme Court Attorney. His grandfather, Manuel Maria Puga Feijoo, was an Elizabethan army colonel and heir of the Countess of Ximonde.

"Picadillo" studied law at Santiago de Compostela where he presented his thesis "Nobility Jurisdictions" in 1895.

Thanks to Canovas del Castillo, friend of his father, he managed to be appointed to a position in Criminal DG, with no need to compete. Unhappy with political environment in Madrid and longing for his homeland, after assassination of Canovas in 1897, he came back to Galicia.

He married María del Carmen Ramón and he was appointed Municipal Judge in Arteixo. In 1899 his father died and he inherited the Pazo of Anzobre in Arteixo.

He joined with strong prominence to social and cultural life of A Coruña. He had a very close friendship with Wenceslao Fernández Florez and Emilia Pardo Bazán, both famous writers and intellectual figures.

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