Oysters with grapes

Since 2000, Pedro Subijana has enjoyed a period of sweet inspiration that has made possible a string of Dishes of the Year: egg with caviar over cauliflower puree and scallion butter, roast lamb served off the bone with a potato cloud and gelatinous-al dente salad, marinated baby squid with onion parmesan soup and Venere rice with cuttlefish and sorrels.

This desire for progress is ultimately witnessed in his oysters with grapes, a wonderful trilogy that offers celestial visions made with shellfish and fruit. In the same plate are served one oyster over a medallion-shaped sour white wine granité, another in salad next to the halved, seeded and peeled fruit and a third floating in a hot grape juice soup. It amounts to a passion play of spaces and temperatures. Beautifully arranged in three points reminiscent of an equilateral triangle. And it is offered with three sensations: frozen, room temperature and hot, proof of how different temperatures suit oysters. And the garnishes or sauces, which can be defined both ways, always seem integrated with the shellfish, forming a duality of main ingredients that presents an amazing gustatory and tactile complexity. Very diverse textures and assorted flavors within the same identity, offering immensely enjoyable sweet and sour notes; as pleasing as they are difficult to grasp, producing unknown sensations that are a challenge to take in. They require a very open-minded diner with a palate capable of evaluating the entirely unknown.