A return to classics such as seafood paella is just one of four trends sweeping through Spanish restaurants
At the end of 2012, the New York Times noted the surge of Spanish modernism as a global cuisine. As critics celebrated the technical, flavorful feats of mad food scientist Ferran Adría and his disciples, there seemed to be only one problem with the hot new trend—everyone wanting to know “what's next?”
Fortunately, Spanish chefs and restaurant owners proved to be up to the challenge of continuously reinventing Spanish modernism. Here's a look at four new dining trends in Spain.
#1. Theatrical tapas
At Tickets tapas bar in Barcelona, Food+Wine's Lauren Collins describes the atmosphere as a psychedelic carnival: "A waiter trundled up to the table with an ice cream cart, presenting us with a dollhouse-size cone of fish-and-chips. Yet: The fries were pineapple, and the ketchup was raspberry syrup. And over there, sprouting three feet into the air: trees made out of cotton candy!"
Tickets is the creation of Albert Adría, a talented chef from El Bullí, who's stepping out from the shadow of his famous older brother Ferran. Molecular gastronomy, which Adrías invented, is a style of cuisine in which chefs explore culinary possibilities by borrowing tools from the science lab and ingredients from the food industry.
According to Gastroeconomy, a site for Spanish foodies, the showmanship practiced at restaurants like El Bullí has left diners with the expectation of being entertained. But theatre can also mean simply letting the diner watch the chef work. At Roca Moo in Barcelona, counter seating gives guests a front-row view of head chef Juan Pretel's creative Catalan cooking.
#2. Singular concepts
"Do one thing and do it well." That's the mantra of a crop of new Spanish restaurants that maintain a laser focus on a single type of food, ingredient or era. Gastroeconomy names a few examples, including restaurants built around pork and classic cocktails. Bodega 1900 in Barcelona is a new vermouth and tapas bar founded by Albert Adría. “Bodega 1900 will be the Tickets that, if we lived 100 years ago, we would have opened,” he explained to Food+Wine.
#3. Gastrobotanics
In fine dining, vegetables are always the sidekicks, rarely the superheroes. Spanish chef Rodrigo de la Calle seeks to change that with a philosophy he calls gastrobotanics. "The idea is to reinstate vegetable species and varieties that possess notable qualities yet have been disparaged, left unexplored, or simply never been discovered. ... Nature still has plenty of secrets to keep the spirit of enquiry occupied," de la Calle tells ICEX's Foods From Spain site.
Working with biologist and nurseryman Santiago Orts, he seeks to identify and cultivate plants that can offer exciting and unexpected flavors. Examples include Australian finger limes, chickweed and lichen. De la Calle's restaurant at Villa Magna in Madrid offers such enticing mysteries as "pineapple textures with juniper" and "shrimp aguachile and herbs from the sea."
#4. Back to basics
Spanish haute cuisine has relentlessly focused on the new and the different, but some top chefs believe in the basics. Elena Arzak, named the world's best female chef by Veuve Cliquot, demonstrates a passion for Basque cooking and ingredients at her family restaurant, Arzak. She takes local delicacies such as barnacles, hake's throat and tuna belly and transforms them into creative pinxtos, or Basque tapas. “Even if we cook very modern, avant-garde, the root is here. We like peppers, we like garlic," she tells the Financial Review.
Opened in 1897 as a village tavern in San Sebastian, Arzak is credited with sparking —and continuing—the evolution of Basque cooking. "However far the restaurant moves forward, it still honours its Basque culinary heritage," says the review of the restaurant by The World's 50 Best Restaurants List (Arzak was named number 8 in 2014).
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