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For the last three days, Madrid has been the undisputed capital of the foodie planet. On the stage of Madrid Fusion, one of the most important gastronomic events in the world, the latest trends in the sector have paraded.
En Summum, we review all the dishes, ingredients and destinations that you cannot miss this year.
The essence of Russian luxury
In 1885 Tsar Alexander III commissioned the jeweler Peter Carl Fabergé with a unique gift for his wife, Maria Fiodorovna: an easter egg to enclose a jewel and be a jewel in itself. It was the first in a series of high jewelery pieces, some of them missing, that are legendary.
In Cococo restaurantIn St. Petersburg, each dish is strictly linked to Russian traditions. Polished, refined, reinvented, but authentic. Because the diamond of Russian gastronomy, caviar, here is served inside a small Fabergé egg.
A luxury without time.
The delicate science of pairing
In Japanese and Chinese cuisines, tea is as important as wine in ours. The chef Tomoya Kawada, Japanese who practices Chinese cuisine in his Sazenka restaurant, in Tokyo, goes one step further. In his home, tea – white, green, black, yellow – is the center around which his creations revolve.
On the menu, we find elegant combinations such as the Crab Spring Roll with Champagne Tea (tea infused for 48 hours to which gas is added) or a light appetizer of white mushrooms and jellyfish with truffle-infused Yunnan white tea. With the help of a tea siphon, a kind of coffee pot, Kawada creates her own blend to pair with roast pigeon meat. It has black tea, roses, lemongrass, bay leaf, cinnamon, cloves and Taiwan pepper.
If we want surprise our guests, we already have a few good ideas.
The unstoppable green wave
The closest environment, the defense of local products, the dignity of small producers, sustainability, the environment. The green wave continues to broadcast loud and clear from fine dining restaurants. A commitment to the territory as old as the world that nevertheless has in the new technologies your best allies.
Best Farmers is an application still in development phase that will see the light throughout 2018. Through it, it will be possible to have access to the widest network of quality providers worldwide. A network to which some of the best chefs on the planet contribute, each one in their own “beam of action”.
Eneko Atxa, tri-star chef of azurmendi, puts us behind this track during his presentation. Finding the best of the best from a country to which we travel will no longer be a problem.
Next destination: Tel Aviv
A melting pot of cultures, languages, flavors, Israel has been raising passions for a while foodies of half the world. One of its cities, Tel Aviv, enjoys an enviable health from a gastronomic point of view.
Milgo and Milbar, captained by chef Moti Titman, and MashyaUnder the leadership of Moroccan chef Yossi Shitrit, these are the restaurants to go to to catch up on the future of cooking.
Cereals, vegetables, fish, meat –pork included– and a myriad of spices and herbs are the ingredients to which these two cooks put their hands. Their dishes They have roots deep in the earth and at the same time they think and make us think with total freedom.
In search of new harmonies
Mugaritz, restaurant with 2 Michelin stars expert in breaking rules, he has sought and found a new dimension to the harmony between dishes and wines. It is no longer about a simple pairing, but about making wine part of the dish. And not as a simple ingredient.
El olives and sherry flower brioche (yes, the veil, the flower of Jerez wines made edible) or the hazelnut and caviar Mochi with the molecule, isolated in the laboratory, responsible for the unique aroma and taste of Riesling are two examples of the paths opened by Andoni Luis Aduriz in your restaurant. That is where to go and where to look.
Lisbon in three stops
Beautiful, romantic and with a lot of soul, Lisboa It is this year’s hot destination for another reason as well.
A new generation of chefs who can still afford to doubt how their diners will react to their reinterpretation of traditional cuisine.
Trading Post, Loco y Alma These are the three restaurants in which you have to eat to find out what is cooking in the Portuguese capital.
Freshness and illusion.
Salsa peeks on stage
The best cooks often say that a bad dish well served it has some chance of liking it, but a good dish badly served has none. The importance of the room it is unequivocal and yet for a long time it has been in the shadow of the kitchen and its egos.
Now the time seems to have come for this part of the dining experience to shine through. The prominent role of Abel Valverde in Santceloni, by José Polo in Lobby or the creative tandem formed by Aduriz and his sommelier Guillermo Cruz on the stage of Madrid Fusion 2018 attest to this.
The spring of the offal
Always considered the least noble and cheap part of the animal, the offal He is currently living his golden moment.
It is the leitmotif of the kitchen of Javi Estévez en The Tasquería, in Madrid, but there are more TOP chefs who are no longer afraid of viscera. Among them, the Catalan Benito Gomez, chef of Bardal in Ronda. Who, by the way, has a mania: do not repeat a single ingredient in the dishes of the tasting menu (seventeen in the shortest).
Russian chef Dmitry Blinov he flirts and a lot with the offal in his Duo Gastrobar, in Saint Petersburg. The new frontier of the offal? The one that comes from the sea. Both in Bardal and in Quique Dacosta we stumbled upon monkfish liver. In Denia’s three-star restaurant, it’s something like an autochthonous foie gras.
A declaration of intentions.
The sea has no limits
When Angel León He decided to bet on bringing to light in his kitchen the infinite wealth of the sea, he also promised to surprise the public year after year.
The sea has no limits, so we discovered things like that you can make fish sausages or that the light of the ocean can also be eaten.
Located in an old tidal mill in El Puerto de Santa María, Aponiente It is the restaurant where each season the border moves a little further. Leon’s new challenge It has been to naturally decalcify the shell of crustaceans, making them soft and edible. Who has never dreamed of eating a lobster without getting dirty? One more reason to visit this brand new three Michelin stars.
What happens in Enjoy happens only in Enjoy
Mateu Casañas, Oriol Castro y Eduard Xatruch They are the three former chefs of elBulli. Finished his stage in Cala Montjoi, they opened Share, in Cadaqués, and Enjoy, in Barcelona, which has 2 Michelin stars and has already been recognized as one of the most projected Spanish restaurants.
The latest gastronomic proposals of this luxury trio go through experiment with the OC’OO, a kitchen robot widely used in Korean houses to prepare traditional dishes.
Among other functions, this machine allows you to cook food, both fruit and vegetables, for many hours without burning them. In this way, its appearance, texture and flavor change radically and to the taste of the cook. A few sticks of garlic turn into vanilla beans and an onion candy gets rid of the danger of tasting like burned.
Another invention: the fried egg with different flavors and colors, where the traditional yolk is replaced by a spherification of salmon roe juice, beetroot or mashed potatoes.
The heart of Spanish haute cuisine has beaten again.