The new wind from Aponiente

Today we welcome, for the first time, an article from Gastroactitud, an important Spanish food news website, directed by José Carlos Capel and Julia Pérez, curators of the international congress Madrid Fusión. Every month, they write a report on one of the most interesting places in Iberia and beyond. We at Identità are doing the same on Gastroactitud: we’ve already published a first piece on The 5 most interesting new restaurants in Italy.

The new Aponiente is a dream floating on a marsh, a beautiful landscape full of sand and water surrounding El Puerto de Santa Maria, a small town near Cádiz, in the Southern tip of Spain. It is the dream of a chef, Ángel León – aka "chef del mar" – who weaves recipes with fish and seaweeds, plankton and shells, who lives stuck between the banks of a strait. Because you can cook avantgarde with a little seawater from Andalusia. A universe of jellyfish and mackerel, sea horses and sardines. A ray of light disrupting the abyss. The story of captain Nemo told with the inflection of Cádiz.

The mill in which León built his new home no longer mills wheat, as in the 17th century, but fine-tunes one of the most powerful mechanisms in 21st century cuisine. Stonewalls enclose the essence of the sea. A unique universe with which only León and his boatswain, Juan Luis Fernández – with whom he forms an indissoluble tandem – are capable of confronting themselves. Marine thoughts are translated into edible allegories. A cuisine with a sapid soul that is sometimes dressed up to deceive the guest, as in the case of the selection of fish charcuterie, served as an aperitif on a platter in which the pork is in fact made with seafood ingredients: longaniza and butifarra sausages, sardine pâté, pâté in a pastry crust, tuna pastrami… If you don’t love fish, keep off. There’s no menu at Aponiente; only two tasting menus exclusively made of seafood and marine vegetables. It’s a huge radicalisation of a territory.

We go towards the dining room, with salt and bags full of minerals guiding us up to the door of the mill, recreating a salina. A facade made with oyster shells is covered with bended sheets of iron, sails full of an imaginary wind from the West, what with submerged and rusty wrecks. Inside, large size prevails. In every detail, in every corner, every tiny space, the marine soul translates into shapes and images by architect Basilio Iglesias and sculptor Javier Ayarza: the part covered in scales and canine rose (the small snails stuck on boat hulls), the large-scale reproduction of microscopic diatomic seaweeds converted into silica lamps, sculpted fish, iridescent jellyfish floating in the dark and 560 rays of light rising from the bottom of the sea. A theatrical staging which at times acquires phantasmagorical nuances.

And while walking towards the table, guests have an aperitif paired with the wines from Jerez, the other treasure of this bay. Small Tortillas with prawns woven as in a lace, marriages of anchovies and sardines, bocadillos with calamari, cod croquettes from Paco Ceballos… Contemporary versions of traditional nibbles.

Yet the feast is only just beginning. Every menu includes around thirty tastings what with tapas and dishes of different sizes: flavours, textures and tenaciousness are everything. A classic base dressed with modernity. Research, technique, roots and compromises with the environment. 20 chefs work in the kitchen for 20 guests. And as many in the dining room, directed by Juan Ruiz.

Meanwhile, on the table, there’s a parade of sardines (a very thin tasting, prepared with the belly on a tart with its fat), calamari (a colourful and tasty aguachile, with delicious texture), plankton (acid, spicy, bitter... crazy, this is the name of the dish to be eaten by the kitchen table, while listening to the sound of a storm, like staying below deck, on a boat, a Titanic-style moment) and a network of poor or undervalued fish, dressed up into traditional dishes from Cádiz, such as chirigotas, or in other things: caldillo de perro, gazpacho with green tomatoes, squid gnocchi, gazpachuelo and a royale of leftover, a seafood stew that takes your breath away …

In a cooking strongly based on savoury tastes, sweets are the most difficult part. Yet León is working hard to fix his faults. Cleaning and refreshing: Cucumber, lime and hierbabuena mint. A great idea. Then, Apple sigh: a fake meringue, a sweet pavía (a conceptual repetition that could, or perhaps should, be avoided). And Chocolate-caramel, the perfect end. This is León’s cuisine: classic foundations and fearless spirit. A fish against the current, always looking for the impossible.