Check Salad

A new period has arrived in the triumphant era that Davide Scabin initiated, which will put him on the podium of honor in European cuisine. Curiously, contrary to the radical denaturalization he practiced in the past, today his brilliance has a sharp definition to it: Gastronomic Ecology. Two stunning examples serve as testimony to the essentiality and immaculate nature of the creations. The first, eggplant tataki, moved Martín Berasategui to say: “it is the best eggplant I have ever eaten in my entire life”… and in mine, his… anyone’s. The second is the daring and clairvoyant “check salad”, offering a new and groundbreaking idea on salads. It is a revolution of concept rather than technique, of pure flavors from the garden rather than sapid lucubrations on the part of the chef. It is about using talent to exalt the natural gifts of the earth to their highest point. The guest ruminates over the dish… intelligently tasting distinct products, independent of each other; it is not mixed together, nor should it be, only simply dressed with a solution of sea salt in water, which is sprayed in honor of the intrinsic quality of the ingredients. Nuts are arranged with the same objective and in accordance with the green philosophy that makes this dish so spectacular. Sometimes a little truffle is included; at other times a miniscule spoonful of caviar accompanies the dish. Chopsticks are presented to pick up each ingredient separately and a psychedelic spoon is served to give a little more grandiloquence to the grandeur.
Michel Bras’ gargouillou, Martín Berasategui’s warm salad of raw vegetables with lobster, cockles, razor clams, iodized juices and lettuce cream and this “check salad” are the greatest exponents of vegetable cuisine in recent decades; no more, no less.