Alfredo Russo is developing an inventive cuisine that is patently modern as well as inspired in historical recipes, ingredients and flavors. This symbiosis of culture and imagination that characterizes his work is reflected in this creation, which has some genius and much perfection. Behind the title lies the surprise: a spectacular and impeccable millefeuilles assembled with a multitude of superfine, translucent pasta layers enriched with egg yolk that alternate with thin layers of cooked cheese cream; a rectangular construction that takes the form of lasagna, enveloped in an airy ivory Parmigiano-Reggiano foam imbedded with small crunchy pieces of pistachio and Parmesan. It is all perfumed and oiled with virgin olive oil. What richness of textures and consistencies! What refinement in flavors! What an original way to present the most elemental, typical pasta adornments! What a pure, academic and well-conceived lasagna! It has multiple readings and one sole truth: enthusiasm for the virtue of harmonizing the easy and the difficult.

In Basque cuisine, cod has always traditionally been prepared in sauce (pil pil, a la vizcaína, al Club Ranero, en salsa verde, etc.) or in other ways (in an omelet, with bread-garlic soup in zurrukutuna, as stuffing for peppers, fried with green peppers, etc.); but strangely never fire-grilled, while it was always a food abundant in cider houses and txakoli wineries. In recent years, it has finally taken its place in the best Basque barbecues, for various reasons: its absence had no logical basis and there are not many fish that are better, and much less with dependable market availability.

The person who has best developed its grilling is, logically, the man who has made a galactic revolution of the grill, Victor Arguinzoniz. As always, he acquires the highest quality and treats it with singular skill. He uses filets from huge specimens of over 10 kilos. Each piece is lightly brushed with olive oil. It is placed skin down on a flat fish kettle, which is laid on the grill, also flat, about 10 centimeters from the embers. The Holm oak embers need to have already burned quite a bit so that they do not damage the fish, which should be cooked very slowly. The skin side cooks for 8 minutes; during this time, some of the fish’s juices as well as some of the olive oil drip into the fire and intensify the flames, producing smoke that ends up lightly flavoring the fish. Once the 8 minutes have passed, the filet is turned over and cooked skin side up, still at a distance of about 10 centimeters, for 2 minutes. Once done, the filet is removed from heat and served skin down, encircled by a ribbon of pil pil.

The fish could not come out any whiter, any more iridescent; a filet that separates into slices when touched with knife and fork—whole slices, triumphantly juicy with the clean, exquisite flavor of fresh salt cod with rustic fragrances that add to its charm.

We had not rewarded this great dish of Isaac Salaberria’s, and we do it now because rectification behooves the wise. The reason for this mandatory recognition: for some time it has garnered the highest praises from authorities as well as being the most oft-ordered by the restaurant’s clientele.

The Iberico pancetta with almond milk cup is patent, emphatic testimony to this young, clairvoyant chef’s style, which, as we have always said, is one of the three or four most developed on the Spanish scene. It surpasses all of the recipes created to date in essentiality: one main ingredient and two sauces. It adheres fully to the use of stocks, consomés, infusions… which define the work of artists. The low temperature cooking technique is used, as in many recipes: his scallops over a seasonal mushroom and olive oil cream infusion, horse mackerel with liquefied watermelon, tomato and tapioca garnished with garlic flowers, cod confit with pig’s ear and Bomba rice, etc. In this case, the pieces of Iberico pancetta, each weighing some three kilos, are submerged in a reduced vegetable stock (onion, carrot, garlic, salt and pepper), which is maintained at a stable temperature of 80º C for 9 hours. When ordered, it is cut and browned in the pan. Such a delicious piece—most importantly melts in your mouth, with some meaty parts (the loin) coated in a fragrant pork essence with eucalyptus oil; and served on the side, in a different space, is a magical cupful of almonds, to be delicately sipped and intermingled with the fat of the pork.

The ingeniousness and excellence that have made Manolo de la Osa a sensation in 2004 are probably insufficiently addressed in this section. No one dish notably stands out, though there are five or six that deserve the highest marks. The cockles and trout roe with cauliflower cream reinforced with sea urchins and impregnated with anis fragrance regales us with a “10” in sauce within a sea of sensations. The goat cheese and green tomato soup with basil, mint and lemon thyme is capable of competing with the most liquid, refreshing and aromatic broth you can imagine. The raw prawn with amazing honey-olive oil emulsion, Manchego bun and thyme, rosemary and marjoram sorbet exceeds the complexity appreciable by human beings, gourmet as they may be. The Torta de La Serena cheese with small anis-flavored leeks, caviar, pineapple and asparagus sprouts is an absolutely exquisite rainbow of flavors. The Iberico pork cheek with licorice and winter savory is a further testament that places this chef from La Mancha at the world’s aromatic pinnacle. And we could go on, and on, and on… but we can’t leave out the hare extract with melon jam and onion sprinkled with cocoa beans and pepper—the cream of the crop.

Yes sir, it is an extract, or better said an essence of hare with a sharp game flavor that is as wild as the animal, with aromas of wild herbs, rustic aromas of vine shoots and smoke and the texture of a junket. It is a paté for the 21st century, the same in different form: a sip-ful of hare with the texture of a creamy junket, adorned with cocoa beans, melon cubes, pine nuts, garlic crystals, melon molasses… an indescribable orgy of elements in a magical juxtaposition of qualities.