19-02-2024
The famous Pan chino relleno from restaurant Disfrutar in Barcelona, 3 fresh Michelin stars and ranked 2nd in the World's 50Best 2023 (photo disfrutarbarcelona.com)
At the end of January, on the occasion of the Madrid Fusion congress, we spent a week in Spain, between Barcelona and Madrid. Seven days dining in some of the country's most celebrated establishments: Enigma, Cocina Hermanos Torres, Disfrutar, and Sips cocktail bar in Catalonia; Corral de la Moreria, Deesa, DStage, RavioXo in the capital. Extraordinary restaurants and useful moments to understand what the trends in the country from which, a quarter of a century ago, the revolution of the new global cuisine started. We have come up with a summary and a phantasmagorical 10-course menu. Let's look at the first notes. TEAM. Italians who go to Spain are always surprised by the spirit that unites the most important chefs. Twenty-five years ago, in the days that inaugurated the first culinary congresses in history, in San Sebastian and Madrid, Ferran Adria, Andoni Luis Aduriz, Juan Mari Arzak, Martin Berasategui, Quique Dacosta, i Roca, Pedro Subijana... paraded embraced on the same stage. The same spirit of amistad also binds today's levers - Eneko Atxa, Ricard Camarena, the Disfrutar trio, Diego Guerrero, Angel Leon, Dabiz Muñoz ... - and not just when posing for photographers. While France built its twentieth-century splendour on raw materials that later became noble (caviar, Champagne, oysters, foie gras...), Spain's rise is the result of the people and the bonds they have woven between them. And you can see the result in the dishes. TASTE. What identity has Spanish cuisine assumed in this quarter of a century? Among the great differences between one restaurant and another, we can identify a common characteristic, perhaps the most important: taste - full, rounded, pandering - is the common goal of all (apart from Mugaritz, where they rebel against its dictatorship). It’s hard, that is, to find Spanish chefs doing acrobatics with sour, bitter or rancid. Wondering endlessly about zero waste or how to make an artichoke stalk sexy. Enjoyment is not an abstract concept and technique, here considered fundamental to the growth of cooking. It’s almost always directed towards that goal. A proof of this is in this tasting menu of the best tastings tried in 7 days.
Pan chino filled with Beluga caviar and crema agra Disfrutar, Barcelona 'Festival', the tasting menu of the moment from Spain's most technical trio - Oriol Castro, Eduard Xatruch and Mateu Casañas - sums up the best that the el Bulli alumni have come up with in almost 10 years. The Pan chino relleno de caviar beluga y crema agra is certainly the restaurant's most famous tasting. A brioche pastry filled with siphoned cream, caviar and double cream. It is dipped in a frying pan with oil at 180°C for 20 seconds. The lactic, the savoury, the lightly fried: monstrous delicacy
Palamós crayfish life cycle Enigma, Barcelona Having archived the dark days of Covid, Albert Adrià is experiencing a second youth at Enigma, a restaurant that has changed its concept from its origins and is now experiencing a superb state of grace. This the best of selection could have included at least four other dishes, but here we choose the 'vertical tasting' of succulent prawns from Palamós. From right to left: 6-month raw prawn; 12-month prawn marinated in lime, ceviche-style; 24-month prawn marinated in salt and sugar and finally 36-month boiled prawn. From the freshest to the most mature. They are sprinkled with an escabeche of the shrimp heads, making a voluptuous sauce to scoop up with some bread
Maresme peas and Iberian jamon Cocina Hermanos Torres, Barcelona The 3 Michelin-starred brothers Sergio and Javier Torres are the authors of a suave cuisine, based in Barcelona but then ranging to the corners of the entire Mediterranean - and they also employ an executive chef from Vallo della Lucania, in Campania, Carmine Memoli. This fabulous dish brings together two formula one ingredients from Spain: peas from Maresme, in Catalonia (the lacrima variety), and a crispy jamón de bellota from cult producer Fisan. Freshness, flavour, umami in many small spoonfuls that you wish would never end.
Selection of Ritz caviar and fresh fish roe cured in a saline atmosphere Deessa at the Mandarin Oriental Ritz, Madrid Deesa is the outpost of Valencian Quique Dacosta in Madrid. He has 3 Michelin stars in Denia and 2 here, in the more classic restaurant on the ground floor of the Mandarin Oriental Ritz, a city landmark. Of all the dishes in a menu that develops between classicism and avant-garde, we were struck by this tasting because it expresses a very complex salting process that Dacosta has been developing for some time now in his parent company: the fish only comes into contact with salt indirectly, in rooms at controlled temperature- and humidity. This way, the roe (of mullet or molva molva) 'breathe in the saltiness by osmosis', a characteristic that makes them creamier than bottarga and, unlike the latter, they can be eaten 'raw' again and again
Chaud Froid sea urchins, piquetes sauce and Cesar Salad with sea urchin sauce Enigma, Barcelona A unique case in our top ten, Enigma is the only restaurant that has two dishes: this is the first of 12 real Platos, which follow 12 Efimeros, the smaller bites at the start of the meal. This is a fabulous chaud froid of of urchins in scapece, enclosed in a jelly. Next to it is a curly salad, drizzled with the 'jus' of the same urchins. You’d wish the plate was four times as big
Sweet potato, candidum, coulant DStage, Madrid Behind the easy and pop air, Diego Guerrero hides one of the most original and skilled hands in the country, behind a restaurant that is light-hearted but tremendously serious and elaborate in its cooking processes, always oriented towards a full and never controversial taste. This dish comes at the end of the tasting menu and is a tromp l'oeil: it resembles a camembert but is actually a sweet potato base, enriched with lactic elements and inoculated with candidum penicillin, after 4 days of incubation at controlled temperature. You break it with a fork and the coolant effect overwhelms the palate
Coulant of yolks and white chocolate RavioXo, Madrid RavioXo is Dabiz Muñoz’s the latest opening (in Spain: just a few days ago StreetXo launched in Dubai). He used to be the bad boy of the Madrid scene, best known for DiverXo (3 Michelin stars and 2nd place in the2023 50Best). Of all the dishes that play around the concept of pasta (dumplings, cannelloni, ramen...), the one we liked best is the last one, an over-the-top dessert called pastel fluido, the Spanish translation of Michel Bras's coulant that here does not contain liquid chocolate but a cascade of white chocolate and yolks. You’ll want to ask for two or three more
Armonia de vinos Corral de la Moreria, Madrid The food here is heart-warming, with the strong Basque leanings of chef David García, and a flamenco tablao among the most prestigious in the country: Spain is certainly not only technical innovation but also tradition updated knowingly. Not to mention the me-mo-ra-ble matching glasses of Marco de Jerez that the Del Rey family has been serving for almost 70 years. These Pedro Domecq Oloroso Lebrero 1960 and Toro Albala don Px Convento 1946 were the last two tastings of a monstrous vertical tasting that also included: La Inglesa Solera fina saca 1/24 mg Corral de la Moreria 12/23, La Cigarrera Manzanilla Pasada, Williams Hubert Fino 2012, Gonzales Byass Tio Pepe en Rama 2023, Lagar Blanco Amontillado vos 20 years, Fernando De CAstilla Palo Cortado Anqtique Saca 1/6, Valdespino Palo Cortado Cardenal Vors 30 years, Gaspar Florido Jeres Viejisimo 25 GF '80 for us, the best sequence ever
Meal spirits Disfrutar, Barcelona One of the most interesting maridaje with food we tried is signed again by the guys at Disfrutar. It is the result of an experiment conducted with a Catalan distillery that produces customised gin for restaurants and cocktail bars. During the meal, they serve spirits with various aromas: calçot (spring onion), undergrowth, wasabi, judia verde (green beans), ceps (porcini mushrooms), erizos (sea urchins). The high alcohol content of each of these distillations (75-80% vol.) is diluted with water until it reaches 16-18% vol., the same alcohol content with which even the Scots are used to dine on whisky or the French on cognac. The varieties of gin are as infinite as the bothanicals that can make them up: sommelier Rodrigo Briseño mentioned experiments even with different types of seaweed, strawberries, jamon iberico... With one great advantage: you can experience aromas in seasons when those ingredients are not found in nature
Negroni with bergamot Sips, Barcelona It goes without saying that Barcelona is one of the best drinking cities in the world. We went to Sips in the Eixample, lured by the fresh title of first place in the World's 50Best Bars: after the long queue, we sat at the table of the tiny bar owned by Simone Caporale (from Como) and Marc Alvarez, sipping this very pleasant variant of Negroni (with bergamot). There’s no counter, seats for 35 people and, behind still, Esencia, a new speakeasy concept just ready to enter orbit
Translated into English by Slawka G. Scarso
Gabriele Zanatta’s opinion: on establishments, chefs and trends in Italy and the world
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born in Milan, 1973, freelance journalist, coordinator of Identità Golose World restaurant guidebook since 2007, he is a contributor for several magazines and teaches History of gastronomy and Culinary global trends into universities and institutes. twitter @gabrielezanatt instagram @gabrielezanatt
