It was a show. An experience.
We’re talking about our latest stop at Disfrutar, Barcelona, a few weeks ago. We left enthusiastic. Why?
For the food, of course.
For the ideas.
For the technique.
For the show.
Let’s take one step back. We could almost speak of classic creativity, of avantgarde in line with tradition. Because the new frontiers of world cuisine, in recent years, have chosen to take different paths compared to the explosion of ideas and technology of the magical years of bullianesim, when every year was a revolution with all its frills; almost everyone has changed the scope of their research; in fact this conversion has often appeared to us as an expedient, a necessity derived from the -supposed – acknowledgement that there was not much more to discover in that gold vein that starting from Spain, from Cala Montjoi in fact, has determined what was contemporary and future fine dining for over a decade.
Oriol, Eduard and Mateu have instead continued to extract following that magnificent vein. They continue to this day, stubborn, tireless, coherent with their history. And they recover some incredible nuggets, at their Disfrutar in Barcelona.
Oriol (Castro), Eduard (Xatruch) and Mateu (Casañas) are geniuses: has this already been said? Perhaps only a few thousand times. However, it’s worth repeating it again: let’s say that the huge difficulty of the venture they are leading could make us think they are foolish, confirming that there’s a thin thread between these two human conditions. But the result of their work is an undoubted proof that we should rather think they are geniuses.
The "menu" at Disfrutar, with the concepts behind their culinary research
They introduce this genius with total determination. Not in the style of
Amici Miei («What is genius? It’s fantasy, intuition, velocity of execution». It’s an Italian style genius, part bright, part scoundrel), Instead, their extraordinary character can be found in their constant commitment and results, in their analytical skills, in the time they dedicate to work, weeks, months, years during which they continue to follow threads of research that seem perhaps to have exhausted themselves but confirm to be still limitless, sided by some new threads, different from the former and yet similar, in the sense that they have not been explored but derive, in all evidence, from the same concept («We never present too many new dishes. We start new journeys»). The trio is always the same, and therefore different. Od vice versa, you pick.
There’s an old dilemma, that applied even to Adrià: when you push so much, when you offer the public not a final end result (that is to say the sedimentation of a journey now tested, defined and ended. A perfection, indeed, but with no further fertility) but the result of constant temporary syntheses of what comes out of their laboratory, not everything can be of the same standard. You dare so much that an error is inevitable, but the margins for mistake are non-existent; the acceleration makes the gourmet shiver, who cares about a few glitches. But, putting aside the extraordinary experience itself – the story of the research is beauty, is a spectacular end, even before the possible/probable result of the research itself – every time, at Disfrutar the journey is memorable because it always surprises even the most disillusioned gourmet, the food lover who is now sceptical and bored.
It’s a show, we’ve already said this. And an experience. Why so?
The food. Not all of the same marvellous standard. But when you eat four or five crazy-good dishes, does it matter? Especially when at least fifteen more are still very fine. It helps, in this sense, the Spanish attitude of having a very long menu (but not too long, beware: we would have been happy to continue on and on, we’ve left as light as feathers, and happy too. But it is very long, with around thirty tastings). Those that will stay sculpted in our memory: Flourless coca-pizza with truffle, burrata and spherified evo oil; Cod "empedrat" with almonds; Crispy mushroom leaf; Green walnut from Idiazábal. Our journey was an extract of new dishes, with some now almost classics, the above-mentioned Coca-pizza is from 2019, Panchino with Beluga caviar from 2016, the Crispy mushroom leaf from 2021, Asparagus with elderberry flowers and macadamia nut too, Our maccheroni alla carbonara from 2014, and the same goes for Chilli pepper with chocolate, oil, and salt and so on.
The ideas. When Oriol or Eduard (it’s a known fact that Mateu doesn’t speak much) present a dish, it seems like they’re referring to a parallel dimension. They don’t talk much about ingredients and methods, but of conceptc, the trompe-l'oeil is not a play of aesthetics, but a tool to reveal the truth and at the same time the relativity of the essence (in this sense, it recalls our own Matteo Baronetto). They talk of perception and emotion, of evocation and transformation. They are in love with products and they scan their truth.
The re-distilling of wines to remove the alcohol and, below, the result: non-alcoholic wines
, or better still the techniques. There’s multi-spheres, the evolution of an old colleague: it almost seems like an old piece of junk, in our constant expectation of novelty, but they give it new credibility. There’s now the research on the potential of microwave cooking, overturning the imagery that has this electromagnetic oven relegated to home cooking and fast foods, to giving a seeming honesty to industrial frozen food. There are the solidification processes of fat bubbles, for which at Disfrutar they make use of a small machine commonly used for fish tanks. There’s the flourless dough made with inulin, a precious intuition. There are of course
Ocoo and
Gastrovac. And then there’s the idea of the alcohol-free wine, thanks to another diabolic machine called
Girovap, a study that the three have been pursuing with sommelier
Rodrigo Briseño: «We want to meet the needs of those who, for some reason, cannot drink alcohol, like pregnant women or people with some health condition», without necessarily making use of an alternative pairing with other drinks «whose flavour usually changes too much the balance with food». The technique allows to remove all the alcohol from any alcoholic drink, whether it’s a Barolo from 1964 or a peat whisky, while preserving all its typical flavours and aromas (the alcohol is removed through a vacuum technique, with
Girovap: it makes use of the fact alcohol is much lighter than water, so you can separate them): the result of this very complex research, based now on parameters – that change from one product to the other – of temperature control (always low) and of the time for re-distilling (they admit the result is not of the same quality for any alcoholic drink: «Those that give the best results are complex wines, with structure and body, preferably aged, which keep their essence and continue to preserve their balance, even with greater strength», hence it works better with red wines than with white wines, for example. Very good with sherry, as well as sake, while there’s no solution yet for bubbles and so on). Since the offer of dealcoholized wines includes the use of the original ones, plus the process of dealcoholisation,
maridaje costs (justly) even more.
The show. A meal at Disfrutar is a constant leap into the surprise, the charm of the novelty, the genius. We had one more opportunity: they welcomed us to a private table in the underground laboratory, where once was the cellar. A unique experience, a privilege itself. But even more so in this case. When the lunch was about to end, a coup de theatre: they removed the tablecloth and we discovered this was a special table, called Table M#01, designed and made for Disfrutar by architect and interior designer Merche Alcalà. It becomes a magic, pure emotion. The background music – a soft piano – grows in volume; the chef urges with his stories while the waiters, using some magnets, lift the different parts of the table as if they were many lids hiding drawers full of treasures. We had eaten there without noticing anything. Inside, dozens of petit fours. In a solemn sequence, the table, now bare, becomes crowded with seeds, sprouts and branches. They form a garden of chocolates, marshmallow, liquid cocktails, amaretti, tubes of liquid creams of yuzu, fresh fruit... A whirlwind. «We conceptualize nature and its threads through these small morsels. Water, flowers, plants... The table is like a collage of colours, fabrics, sensations and volumes. Never has a table been transformed in such way. It’s magical», says Oriol Castro.
An unforgettable end, for a fantastic restaurant.
And now our lunch, with photos from Tanio Liotta.
We start with Dry Martini, in a fake olive
At Disfrutar they are studying the potential of microwave cooking to make a sort of crispy fry without using oil. For now, the result is these 100% umami snacks: in the background, from the left, a crispy soufflé of Parmigiano Reggiano, then a crispy foam of Parmigiano with a spherification of balsamic vinegar, then a curry soufflé. Close up, from the left, a crispy snack of Parmigiano and Roquefort, and finally a snack of Parmigiano and pesto. They are all placed on a mirror tray so you can mirror yourself into it while you taste the snacks, to see the effect it has. It’s paired with a maison cider, smoked right then (apple juice + dry ice + apple wine)
Solid bubbles of smoked butter with sea urchins: they serve a toast with sea urchins from Galicia and solid bubbles of smoked butter, made with the same machine used to add oxygen to fish tanks; the probe is immersed in the liquid smoked butter, to make “bubbles of butter” that are separated when they surface, and then placed at -30°C. Xatruch tells us: «We can use the same technique with any type of fat»
Flourless Coca-pizza with truffle. A premise: coca is a sort of flat bread typical of Catalonia. This flourless "coca-pizza" is made with a dough of starch and inulin: they make very thin layers of potato starch, each spread with inulin, which is a carbohydrate and "glues" them. When cooking, air puffs the layers like pastry, while the inulin makes them extremely crispy too. The seasoning is made with truffle, burrata and spherified extra virgin olive oil: simply extraordinary
The so-called Panchino with Beluga caviar at Disfrutar is now a super classic, born in 2017. It’s a brioche dough with lots of water and yeast. It’s placed in a syphon to make a foam. Then they fill the base of a round mould with this foam, add the caviar and the sour cream, and then more foam to cover everything. They dip in a pan with oil at 180°C for 20 seconds. Pure delight, paired with a shot of home-made vodka with truffle, leaving the black truffle to macerate in the vodka for 70 days
Almonds and almendruco, which is a green almond. The almonds with their shell, cooked at high temperature are served on a stone, the invitation is to break them with a stone. Then there’s the tasting of the almendruco confit in Ocoo, with a spoon. The fake white almond in the photo is instead a sort of polvorón of nougat - polvorón is a sort of heavy Spanish shortcrust pastry, soft and very friable, made with flour, sugar, milk and walnuts
Cod "empedrat" with almonds. Another marvellous, perfect dish. It’s based on empedrat, a typical Catalan dish, a sort of cold salad with white beans, salted cod, hardboiled eggs, pepper, onion, olives and tomato. Here we have the almonds cooked in Ocoo (we saw it in the previous photo), which recall the texture of the white beans, which are served on the side, in the shape of water of white beans which you can sip while eating, see the photo below. And then gel of tomato, fresh tomatoes, seeds of pimiento de Padrón (an extraordinary green and sweet small pepper)...
Tempura of pine sprouts without oil, a marvel. It’s the same technique of frying without oil in the microwave which we saw with the snacks. In this case the sprouts are enclosed in a glutinous rice flour
Same technique: delicious and very aromatic Crispy leaves of mushroom
They serve a small piece of wood, covered with a paper napkin. On top, a magnifying glass and a laser-cut a man...
The magnifying glass serves to appreciate the texture of Onion bread, another technique, made with Gastrovac, a pressure cooker that works in a vacuum
Our maccheroni alla carbonara. A new take on a now classic technique, that is to say a “pasta” without flour, but made entirely of broth (in this case of ham. It is thickened with agar agar), and then foam of egg yolk, Parmigiano browned diced pancetta
Our maccheroni alla carbonara
Asparagus with elderberry flower and macadamia nut: the stripe of green asparagus is wrapped around a sorbet of white asparagus. On top, the tip of a green asparagus placed on mandarin juice. Two powders on the side: on top, macadamia, below, a frozen powder of elderberry flower
Squid with multispheric Catalan peas: it’s all seasoned with a sauce of botifarra negra, a typical Catalan sausage, made with part of the boiled blood of a pig. The "fake peas" are made with a cream of spherified peas with the multi-sphere technique, that is to say a series of spherifications, stabilised with a gel of glutamate (see the famous Tatin de foie-gras y maíz multiesférico, here)
Codium Margarita (to the right) and Umeboshi of raspberry with ravioli of crispy seaweed: in a bowl that smokes with dry ice to hide the seaweed at the bottom, they place an oyster that contains a classic Margarita with codium seaweed and air of salt. To the left, ravioli of seaweed filled with umeboshi of raspberry and seaweeds, and then on top cucumber, wasabi and shiso. In the middle umeboshi of raspberries, as a final tasting
Fear: the prawn. We’re invited to put our hand in a box that smokes with dry ice, and discover what’s inside. Tension, a weird shape... A prawn! A beautiful prawn from Palamós, you eat it as it is. On the side, a traditional juice of prawns and chicken, in the photo
The goose who lay a golden egg: fried egg of crustacean. We had already explained the technique of the coloured fried eggs at Disfrutar: they basically use the spherification to replace a real egg yolk with a fake egg yolk made with any juice, any flavour or colour, of course spherified, and then added to the egg white and fried as usual. In this case they also used metallic colours which give a further aesthetic touch to the outside but don’t influence the inside, which keeps its original colour (the system can also be applied to the food industry: you can pasteurise everything and make fake oyster pearls, silver, or a fake caviar with other elements, like anchovy colatura). Here is the golden egg yolk with juice of crustaceans (inspired by chili crab, made with the head of the prawn and an Indonesian satay sauce, with peanuts, chilli pepper and spices), with angulas and parsley
Blini filled with liquid foie gras and pigeon and black truffle
Pigeon with amazake and kombu. Amazake is a sweetener long known in the East and produced thanks to the enzymatic fermentation of rice
Reflections on nuts: nuts have always been a focus of the research at Disfrutar, see also the almonds in the previous photos. Here you are invited to break the shell…
... and inside you won’t find what you expect, but two separate elements, the heart of the walnut covered with gold and a small piece of Basque cheese, Idiazábal. This introduces the following dish, which is memorable
Green walnut with Idiazábal. A green walnut with its peel is placed in water for a year, with a little sugar in the last week. This makes it all edible. The four bites: from the top left, the crispy heart of the walnut, green walnut (with peel) confit as above, a salted candy of walnut with whisky and Tonka bean, and a green walnut confit with a little ratafià, a Catalan walnut liquor. In the middle, a cream of Idiazábal. Pure marvel for the palate
Cucumber hoisin. Hoisin is a thick aromatic sauce commonly used in Chinese cuisine as a glaze for meat (for instance with Peking duck), added to stir fries or as a sauce on the side. In this case the dish, a dessert, includes a gel of hoisin, sorbet of cucumber, ginger, and puffed pork rind
Chocolate chilli peppers, oil and salt. The green chocolate chilli pepper is aromatised with mint. The red one instead is hot. Velvety
Marshmallow taco. A marshmallow taco with passion fruit, vanilla cream, mango and litchi gelato
An absolutely unique, clamorous finale. They removed the tablecloth and we discovered this was a special table, called Table M#01, designed and made for Disfrutar by architect and interior designer Merche Alcalà. It becomes a magic, pure emotion. The background music – a soft piano – grows in volume; the chef urgers with his stories while the waiters, using some magnets, lift the different parts of the table as if they were many lids hiding drawers full of treasures. We had eaten there without noticing anything. Inside, dozens of petit fours. In a solemn sequence, the table, now bare, becomes crowded with seeds, sprouts and branches. They form a garden of chocolates, marshmallow, liquid cocktails, amaretti, tubes of liquid creams of yuzu, fresh fruit... A whirlwind. «We conceptualize nature and hits fabric through these small morsels. Water, flowers, plants... The table is like a collage of colours, of fabrics, sensations and volumes. Never has a table been transformed in such way. It’s magical», says Oriol Castro. Inebriating, magnificent
