Cocina Familiar con Javier Romero

Javier Romero, Founder

La Rioja, Spain

Spanish chef Javier Romero and his Cocina Familiar team celebrating in their TV studio

2026

Cocina Familiar serves up Spanish home cooking, on TV and online around the clock

In 2012, Javier Romero started out by appearing on a local television show called "Te lo vas a comer todo" with a small station STV Rioja, making 101 episodes on a modest budget. He then went on to create Cocina Familiar con Javier Romero, turning a small local TV program into a veritable media hub for Spanish home cooking spanning TV, web, and print. Along the way, his recipes and shows have grown into a resource for viewers who “don’t know how to cook,” so that they can gain some confidence in the kitchen. Javier is able to keep much of his lessons free to access on the web thanks to ads. He’s also very proud of the fact that so many people have started to cook thanks to his work, and to the advertising that supports it.

From crisis to cocina

In 2008, the global financial crisis hit Spain hard… and it hit Javier Romero personally.

He ended up losing his service company, and at 52 years old, suddenly found himself unemployed. Even worse, it happened at an age he described as “very difficult to find work in Spain.”

But, rather than throw in the towel and retire early, Javier went back to something that had always given him fulfillment: cooking.

He started out by recording a TV show called Te lo vas a comer todo for a small local television station STV Rioja. In spite of the channel’s limited resources, he ended up recording 101 episodes, and turned the modest project into an unexpected pivot for his whole career.

“It served as a launch pad for a long journey that has yet to end,” he remembers of those first TV episodes. Then, a few years later, in 2017, he took another big leap on his journey with Cocina familiar con Javier Romero launching as a TV program on Popular TV de La Rioja.

And step by step, he’s managed to build a media empire of his own — all centered around everyday Spanish home cooking.

In fact, Javier says the program today is seen “on more than 80 private local and regional television stations throughout Spain,” along with a TV channel in the Dominican Republic, and starting in October 2025, one of the largest streaming platforms in the US.

These days, he’s rather proud “of being the first and only chef in Spain to have a themed cooking channel, broadcasting 24 hours a day,” thanks to the more than 2,300 TV programs he’s already recorded.

Along with television, Javier first launched a website called javierromero.es, and was then relaunched as what’s known today as Cocina Familiar con Javier Romero, which serves as an additional resource for home cooks already tuning into his TV recetas (Spanish for recipes). The meaning behind the name — he wanted people to invite him into their homes “as part of the family.”

That’s how he’s always thought of his mission too: “helping people who don’t know how to cook.”

And one of the clearest pieces of evidence that he’s succeeding is how readers return again and again to his most popular content. He’s even rounded up "las 10 recetas más vistas en el año 2022," (Top 10 most viewed recipes) that includes a mix of dishes like homemade hamburgers and arepas to snacks such as potato chips and onion rings.

But Javier hasn’t stopped at just publishing his recipes online; he’s put them into print as well. “I have published four books of which I am very proud,” he says, “especially the latest, Las 1001 recetas de Javier Romero. A true encyclopedia of home cooking.”

As you can imagine, all of the TV, web content, and books have attracted a large following over the years. His Facebook page has racked up 3.1 million followers, while his YouTube channel has amassed almost 900K subscribers. And his readers aren’t just skimming, they’re cooking along with him, learning his recipes step by step, and serving up Javier’s recipes as dinner on their own tables.

Chef Javier Romero sporting a reggaeton-inspired look for his television audiences

Why ads are the ingrediente secreto

And as his audience has grown, so has the work itself. After all, TV episodes have to be produced, websites have to be maintained, and his team of collaborators have to be paid.

That means he’s had to figure out some kind of business model that could support it all at the end of the day, and he had to be sure that something wouldn’t put a paywall between his recipes and the people who needed them.

That’s where the ad-based model comes in. Javier is quick to point out that it’s advertising that’s given him both the money to live, and to keep developing more media resources. “I think it’s a very well-structured business model,” he says. His audience gets the recipes for free, while he’s able to grow his business and create more content.

And it’s not like he’s naive to the tradeoffs between charging readers directly and relying on advertising, either: “On the one hand, I think it’s fair that the consumer pays, but on the other hand, I think it’s very convenient to rely on advertising for your income.”

Today, if you count brand sponsorships, Javier estimates that 90% of his business revenue comes from ads, especially with help from SSMAS, a Google Certified Publishing Partner. It’s a real point of pride for him: how many people have started cooking thanks to his work, and to the advertising that keeps it all going.

Thanks to that partnership, his ads are pulled from Google’s ad marketplace, so relevant ads show up alongside his recipes. Then all Javier has to worry about is the content itself, rather than having to sell individual sponsorships.

That’s how, even after more than a decade, he’s still building. As proof, he’s “finally creating a new cooking website, La Cocina de Romero.” This time, his goal is to combine all of his cooking experience with AI technology so that he can “share all [his] carefully crafted recipes and help anyone new to cooking feel more at home in their own kitchen.”

“An ad-supported business has taken me from financial ruin to living comfortably with a reasonable income 12 years later.”

Chef Javier Romero with fresh ingredients for a Spanish stew in the TV studio

From financial ruin to una vida más tranquila

When Javier reflects on his proudest achievements, he sums it up in one sentence: “I’ve had to learn from young people to teach them what I know.”

At 66, he’s well aware that he’s chosen a career path in an industry that’s typically associated with younger creators, not to mention, on platforms that didn’t even exist when he first started out.

Overcoming that particular challenge has become a source of pride for him. He had to learn all the new tech, so that he could pass on those tried and true recipes.

It’s also why Javier talks a lot about the emotional side of food. For him, cooking isn’t just about feeding people — it’s about their well-being (and his own as well): “I believe that what comes out of the kitchen affects the family’s happiness… If you eat well, you’re happier.”

That same belief sets the foundation for everything he produces, whether it’s TV or online. He wants people to actually make the dishes, not just bookmark them, and he loves that readers’ tastes are so varied, because it means he can also explore the diversity of Spanish cuisine alongside them.

From a professional point of view, he’s frank about what the ad-supported business has meant for him. He says that it’s taken him “from financial ruin to living comfortably with a reasonable income 12 years later.”

As for the next 12 years (and beyond), Javier turns his attention to balance. “Not bad for a 66-year-old,” he jokes, but he plans to keep working, just “in a relaxed way” — continuing to run the TV channel, writing and filming recipes, but most important of all, being welcomed into more cocinas familiares all over the world.

About the Publisher

Javier Romero is the founder of Cocina Familiar con Javier Romero, a Spanish cooking website dedicated to day-to-day family recipes. Based in La Rioja, Spain, he began recording a small local TV show in 2012 after having to shut down his service business in the midst of the financial crisis. He has since grown it into a 24-hour cooking program, originally available on Popular TV de La Rioja in 2017 and is now broadcast on more than 80 local and regional stations in Spain, a TV channel in the Dominican Republic, plus a major streaming platform in the U.S., along with a popular website for home cooks. His mission: to help people who don’t know how to cook, while bringing back the flavors (and emotions) of the dishes they remember from childhood.

Javier Romero, founder of Cocina Familiar con Javier Romero, points at the camera to encourage his viewers to cook Spanish recipes along with him.