
SPAIN'S National Research Council (CSIC) has announced a new book series seeking to debunk widely-held myths through scientific answers – including whether bread really makes you put on weight.
Forgot your password?
Feedback is welcome
This means Spain now has 11 restaurants with three Michelin stars, although several chefs who own eateries of lower categories have this many to their names.
They include Quique Dacosta, whose eponymous restaurant in Dénia (Alicante province) has a waiting list of up to six months, although his El Poblet premises in Valencia, which has just won its second star, comes in at about a third of the price.
The only female chef with three stars is the Basque Country's Elena Arzak, and of the 25 new stars given to chefs, only two went to women – Begoña Rodrigo of La Salita, in Valencia, and María Gómez from Magoga, in Cartagena (Murcia).
Portugal did not gain any three-starred restaurants, but its newest two-star premises is Casa de Chá da Boa Nova, in Leça da Palmeira, near Oporto.
Most mere mortals, when they hear the words 'Michelin-starred' to describe a restaurant, immediately strike it off their lists unless they have a big birthday or wedding anniversary on the horizon and are prepared to empty their savings accounts. But this is where Spain does it differently: Even its three-starred joints can come in at around €150 to €200 a head, and it is perfectly possible to find meals in one- and two-starred restaurants for a two-figure sum.
In fact, plenty of Michelin-starred restaurants in Spain offer taster menus - covering a series of small dishes as a sample of the best of the main list and which, altogether, make up enough food to amply fill three conventional courses – for between €28 and €45 a head.
Let's take a look at this year's 'stars of the show'.
Cenador de Amós
Head chef and owner Jesús Sánchez says his eatery in Villaverde de Pontones offers 'those unique details that leave their trace in the culinary experience' and in which 'respect for traditional Cantabrian flavours is priority'.
Sánchez and his wife and front-of-house manager Marián Martínez opened Cenador de Amós in the mid-18th century Mazarrasa Palace in 1993, gaining a Michelin star in their first year and a second star in 2016.
A typical menu choice might include four snacks, five canapés, three starters, a fish dish, a meat dish, dessert, and petit fours, and costs €137 a head, not including drinks.
A cheaper version, at €109 plus drinks, features a snack, two canapés, a starter, a main course, a 'pre-dessert' or sweet appetiser, a 'main' dessert, and petit fours, or the most complete menu, at €167 a head plus drinks, includes four snacks, five canapés, five starts, a fish dish, a meat dish, a 'pre-dessert', a main dessert and petit fours.
In a nutshell, you won't go home hungry.
The northern region of Cantabria is right on the coast, meaning fish is in abundance and is likely to be freshly-caught.
Noor (two stars)
'Fresh, dynamic and contemporary creative cuisine' is how chef and owner of this Córdoba-based restaurant describes his wares. The influence of the Mediaeval Arab dynasty of Al-Andalus comes out in recipes themed on every one of the last 11 centuries, and in the stunning, artistic tableware.
Again, it's cheaper than you might expect, depending upon set menu choice. The Benimerín Menu costs €95, the Mudéjar is €125, and the Almogávar is €170, plus drinks – different wines can be brought to the table to match every course for a supplement of €45, €65 and €85 respectively, or if you prefer the teetotal option, you only need to add on €5 for bottled water, coffee and tea or infusions.
Skina (two stars)
Priding itself on its traditional methods of cooking and sourcing ingredients – from local farms and markets, for example – this Marbella-based restaurant in the heart of the old town offers, unusually for an eatery of this level, an à la carte option, costing a set €130, or €180 if you include selected wines for each course.
Dishes sound simple – free-range eggs with seasonal mushrooms, cold basil soup with Cantabrian white tuna, seasonal spring onion stew, red prawns with fresh shallots, and oxtail and coffee ravioli on the starter menu – but include a decorative flair and blend of flavours that belies their description.
Bardal (two stars)
Rustic brickwork, wood flooring, low lighting and neutral colours, and 'bespoke' cuisine using 'fresh products' make up this restaurant in Ronda (Málaga) run by Benito Gómez.
Ángle (two stars)
Owned and run by celebrity TV chef Jordi Cruz, this Barcelona premises offers two set taster menus with 'small and medium-sized portions', featuring 'the best seasonal fish, seafood and meat' and concluding with 'small desserts and petit fours'. It describes itself as 'a restaurant for everyday eating' with 'exquisite dishes at value-for-money prices'. The cheapest of these, at €90 plus a €50 supplement for selected wines with each course, includes grilled octopus with black garlic and all i oli, a sushi nigiri of roast tuna skin with eel sauce, grilled red snapper, beef and oyster paella, roasted sweet potato with duck, maize and foie gras, and desserts of frozen coconut, pineapple sorbet and peanut spongecake, and raspberry and beetroot meringues with kaffir lime and yoghurt.
A second and more expensive menu, with more courses, comes in at €115 plus €60 for added select wines, and includes fabada (bean stew typical of Asturias) with lamb, tuna cannelloni, beef Wellington, fish bouillebaisse with aniseed and saffron, ravioli of parmesan, egg, truffle mushrooms and artichokes, mini-sardines in all i oli with 'coal bread' made from aubergine and black garlic, with one of the desserts being a delightful sounding mess of chocolate, hazelnuts, Bourbon whisky and vanilla ice-cream.
El Poblet (two stars)
For anyone living within striking distance of mainland Spain's east coast – or anyone who watched the full series of Gordon Ramsay's Costal del Nightmares – Quique Dacosta needs no introduction. And his three-star Dénia restaurant was not one of the so-called Nightmares: Ramsay had taken a local diner family along so they could learn silver-service and high-class cooking.
Possibly Luis Valls, Teresa Pérez and Manuela Romeralo do need introduction though; Luis worked alongside Dacosta for four years in Dénia and is now, along with the women, in charge of El Poblet in Valencia, which has just netted its second star.
Dacosta describes his fare in both eateries as 'Mediterranean haute cuisine', although the Dénia branch is somewhat plus haute, as shown by the €165 price for the lunchtime menu and the six-month wait to get a table.
Menus at El Poblet are served per table rather than per head, in keeping with the very Valencian tradition of everyone dipping into communal dishes.
Now it's gone up a star, the price has, understandably, risen, but still comes in at a bargain for a two-starred restaurant: for the cheapest option, diners get the set snacks and choose two courses and a dessert plus petit fours for €85 a head, or an €89 menu includes small dishes of seafood, pumpkin doughnuts or buñuelos, blue crab with sea fennel, smoked fish and herb soup, Dénia red prawns, pâté on a bed of sweet potato skins with malt whisky, whole roasted fish with swede, vanilla and saffron, paella with seaweed and sea-nettle sauce, roast Iberian pork with aniseed, and a fig-based dessert.
These and other dishes make up the larger selection that costs €125 a head.
But if you want to 'go Michelin' at half the price, head to El Poblet on a weekday lunchtime for three canapés, two starters, a main course, dessert and petit fours for €62 a head.
New stars: Restaurants who gained their first
Of the 23 eateries who have become Michelin-starred for the first time, 19 are in Spain and four are in Portugal – Epur and Fifty Seconds, in Lisbon, Vistas, in Vila Nova de Cacela, and Mesa de Lemos in Passos de Silgueiros.
Typically, Barcelona, Madrid and the Basque Country tend to claim the most stars, although this year has seen quite a geographical mix.
Aürt and Cinc Sentits in Barcelona, 99K Sushi Bar and Gofio in Madrid, and Ola Martín Berasategui – the 'cut-price' version of the celebrity chef's eponymous three-starred restaurant – gained their first stars.
Central Spain featured more heavily this year: Iván Cerdeño in Toledo, Retama in Torrenueva (Ciudad Real province), both in Castilla-La Mancha, and Taller Arzuaga – run by the celebrated and star-studded Basque Arzuaga family – in Quintanilla de Onésimo (Valladolid province), in Castilla y León, all earned their first stars.
Northern Spain gained a star thanks to La Biblioteca in Pamplona (Navarra), and having dominated the new two-starred list, Andalucía also has two new one-starred restaurants: Dama Juana, in Jaén, and Mantúa in Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz province).
The Balearic Islands now have another two single-starred restaurants: Voro, in Canyamel, Mallorca, and Es Tragón in Sant Antoni de Portmany, or San Antonio, Ibiza.
Two other stars were awarded in the Canary Islands: La Aquarela in Patalavaca and Los Guayres in Mogán, both in Gran Canaria.
Catalunya as a region gained three additional stars – as well as the two restaurants in Barcelona, Deliranto in Salou on the Tarragona-province coast, with its 'classic and innovative Mediterranean cuisine', is a delight for the imagination and a potential bookworm's paradise with its menus themed on The Little Prince, The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass – and naturally, for its festive menu, Dickens' A Christmas Carol – each course named after a chapter or key event in these much-loved fantasy stories.
Now with its first star, Tula has given the lively coastal town of Jávea (Alicante province) its second Michelin restaurant after Bon Amb, which has two stars and three 'Repsol Suns', from the nationally-prestigious Repsol Guide.
Scoring the full five out of five and rated fourth out of 308 in Jávea on TripAdvisor, Tula, which is one street back from the Arenal seafront and just up the road from The Original Charity Shop, offers small portions ranging from approximately €10 to €20 – the idea being to order several to share – desserts ranging from €5 to €7.50 and a cheese platter of €10 for a half-portion or €17 for a full, meaning the average price per head plus drinks can be as little as €15 or up to €40 or €50.
SPAIN'S National Research Council (CSIC) has announced a new book series seeking to debunk widely-held myths through scientific answers – including whether bread really makes you put on weight.
GERMAN supermarket chain Aldi has announced a major expansion plan for Spain in 2024, with its distribution centre in Sagunto (Valencia province) set to open next month and a another one on the cards for the north.
WHEN the summer reaches its hottest weeks, the idea of cooler climates suddenly becomes more attractive. And although Spain generally cannot offer temperatures similar to northern Scandinavia, not everywhere in the...
TWO of Spain's top sportsmen have joined forces to open a restaurant in Valencia city – part of a small chain which has eateries in Beverly Hills and Doha.