As we insisted last year: “Congratulations. Quique Dacosta made superhuman efforts to break fresh ground. He accepted the challenge this guide presented to him in the last edition and was able to reinvent himself, just like Joan Roca did two or three years ago. In fact, we do not remember any other cook of the Spanish top cuisine to have done such a substantial change –some modified some elements, but did not proceed to a real transformation”. The thing is that in 2011, the path he cleared was so magnificent, that instead of talking about a new era, we can talk about a new Quique; a man who is completely different from the one we used to know. His spectacular and utterly sophisticated architectural constructions –very difficult to carry out on a daily basis, a fact that used to lead to some lack of understanding and to some ups and downs regarding realization– to more essential and direct dishes aimed at reaching more virtuosity and efficiency. He also abandoned almost all his the previous influences in order to propose freer and more original creations. Talent is evident in every dish, based on apparently simple recipes that require a strong maturity and a prodigious imagination.
A good example of this new trend is the red mullet, deboned and reconstructed, cooked in a foil parcel, served raw and hot, incredibly natural, covered with concentrate juice made of its livers and sea urchins, wonderfully intense, and magically garnished with julienned snow peas perfumed with eucalyptus, on the top. Another immeasurable ingenious proposal is the dish called Chufas (Tiger nuts): a COOKED horchata (typical Spanish sweet drink made from tiger nuts and sugar) covered with some truffles of cocoa butter filled with foie gras cream, some tiger nuts SHEETS and a few dots of black truffle oil. The avocado is no less impacting and virtuous: a delicious guacamole inlaid with quenelle-shaped smoked salt that swims in an exquisite dashi soup made of red shrimps and seaweeds. Extreme naturalist minimalism: squids cooked in a foil parcel, just heated, served together with a small bowl that contains some squid consommé spiced with a hot pepper infusion. Vegetables in all their purity and lightness: peas with their leaves, flowers and broth enhanced with a hint of wasabi. “El Rocío” (Dew) is a very immaculate and fierce proposal: ice lettuce and salicornia with iced caipirinha. Seaweeds, which appear here and there on the menu, reach their highest peak with the seaweed bread stew. Ecology and nature are omnipresent: roasted aubergines with brushstrokes of beet juice and a succulent hint of hare in the form of concentrate juice, really smooth and refined. The oyster, once again, was brilliant: Gillardeau oyster in its shell, cooked for a few seconds, served in its juice and accompanied with pieces of sea lettuce and salt. A total of 25 dishes that make any imaginable dream come true.
Some of the famous dishes proposed in the last few years are still served in the “Universo local” menu (€90). This is one of the two options, together with the “Sale el Sol” menu (you can’t eat à la carte any longer). Tablecloth have been removed, the place has been computerized … A renewed spirit is in the air.