Akelarre

Pedro Subijana’s cuisine, reaffirmed by the work he has been doing during the last few years, proudly spreads out its most emblematic dishes. Legendary proposals which have brought a new concept of dining room service, improving the culinary finishing in front of the guest, such as his spiny lobster distilled in a coffee maker or his prawns with beans flambéed with wine brandy, which both won the Dish of the Year award. This great chef earned quite a lot of Dishes of the Year, actually, most of which are still available and must be remembered or discovered: egg and caviar on cauliflower purée and spring onion butter; false risotto of vegetables and beet yolk; molluscs in the fisherman’s net (barnacles, oysters, clams, razor clams, cockles, mussels and borage arranged under a wonderful net of rice cream garnished with little shrimps, seaweeds and spring onion flowers); gin tonic; and many other proposals that would also have deserved the award, such as the zebra bay squid (black and white, stuffed with a “Pelayo” garnish); the wholemeal red mullet with fuselli; the sea bass or hake with barnacles, olive oil pearls and arugula; the foie gras with white wine sauce, salt flakes – sugar– and black pepper grains (Venere rice, actually); and the roasted suckling pig with tomato ball and Iberian pork emulsion.
Another recipe that is prepared under the eye of the guest and also deserves a separate mention is the baby squid with salt: half raw baby squids lain on a tomato carpaccio garnished with vegetables and spring onion flowers, slightly heated, and covered with a serviette full of “incandescent” salt. Unbelievably natural and exquisite. The spider crab (or king crab) leg placed on a blini filled with the meats of the animal’s body, swimming into a delicious consommé of the seafood, is an immaculate and utterly smart proposal. Other eternal pride of the house (in summer): the beans, now served with oysters and gelatinized balls that taste of bean pods. The roasted pigeon with hints of chilli sauce and cocoa is impeccable regarding product quality and doneness, and magical for its exciting counterpoints. And what can we say about the porous foie gras with peanut toast or about “Lime-lemon”, a very pure and refreshing frozen butter; two extremely technical and satisfying proposals.