Hare extract with melon molasses, spring onions and garlic crystals

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.