I recently had the pleasure of meeting Rodrigo de la Calle, a young Michelin-starred chef, as part of a project he has been working on for our Viña Mayor wine range. Not only is he a thoroughly top bloke, he is a very passionate chef, spearheading a movement he calls “gastrobotanica” reviving rare varieties of vegetables in danger of extinction and putting vegetable centre stage inhis dishes. Rodrigo has a very clear vision of the future gastronomic landscape in which meat and fish will be a rare luxury. If the tasting menu at his eponymous restaurant is anything to go by, that´s no bad thing.
As a huge fan of delicious Spanish vegetables I was horrified, although not surprised to hear Rodrigo´s stats about the paltry percentage of Spanish vegetables that end up in restaurants – of those that aren´t exported, only potatoes and oranges are consumed in any great quantities in the catering sector. Rodrigo´s menus aren’t vegan or even vegetarian but rather than the great slabs of meat or fish common in most restaurants, he chooses to give vegetables and fruit a starring role with animal fat or protein as a garnish or flavouring.
Vegetables are even used as decoration, I had to stop myself (or rather my husband had to stop me) from pinching the beautiful purple pepper that was on the table with a sign that said “Once upon a time there was a pepper that wanted to be an aubergine and an aubergine that wanted to be a pepper. Mother Nature made their dreams come true…”
The aperitivos arrived with a glass of Viña Mayor Verdejo 2011 from D.O. Rueda, I must confess interest here, but it was very crisp and refreshing. Of the amuse-bouches the most interesting was a deep fried “maize flower” with Ras-el-Hanout, a.k.a that hairy stuff that you get on the end of corn on the cob. Not having considered it as a valid foodstuff rather than impromptu dental floss, I was surprised to discover it delicious in this form, crisp on impact then almost dissolving in the mouth like a spiced cloud.
Of the starters, the “textures of tomatoes” from the local Huerta de Carabaña was one of my highlights – from a jelly made of a tomato stock, a peeled cherry tomato filled with tomato puree and a concentrated tomato powder – it was a homage to the wonder of seasonal, heritage tomatoes and the flavours were so intense that we had to double check that it didn´t include meat or other ingredients.
Tomates “Huerta de Carabaña”
For the next course, I was allowed to pick the main ingredient, a mushroom that was growing in the restaurants own fungi patch alongside the wine. Adding a bit of fun to proceedings, Rodrigo also explained that because Spain has had a particularly dry summer wild mushrooms are rare and cultivated mushrooms quickly lose their flavor. Serving it raw, sliced finely at the table over a gellified consommé meant that the earthy aromas were still fresh.
Consomé gelée, champiñón de París (variedad Portobello), y tabulé
Picking my own mushroom
Rodrigo´s “Ensalada #verde” was a remix of the classic mixed salad – a puree of lettuce, cooked red onion, the centre of a tomato and more courgette flowers – this time raw – with a dressing of an unique olive oil from an olive that they´ve recently rescued from extinction in a local finca exclusively for the restaurant. I particularly loved the lettuce puree, a reminder of how delicious this salad leaf can be when cooked.
Ensalada verde
A wooden box was placed on the table, not being able to resist sneeking a peek we found it was filled with beautiful edible flowers, one of which, a tiny but pungent garlic flower was used to perfume our “melon cucumber, cucumber melon” a culinary play on the fact that Spaniards complain that unripe melons taste of cucumber.
Melón pepino, pepino melón
A homage to seaweed (it´s currently out of season) recreated its briny flavours with a plump oyster, citrus and liquid chard.
Acelga líquida, ostra y cítricos
My husband greeted the next course with “oh, so there is a fish course”, before I explained that it wasn´t fish, but an oven roasted endive with a sauce made of a reduction of pulses that tasted like an incredibly concentrated chicken stock, with the silky texture of pil-pil sauce.
Endibia asada, untuoso de legumbres
Marcus had also spotted that we hadn´t been given any bread, it soon arrived and Rodrigo explained that up to now we hadn´t been given any as the dishes we had didn´t need it and, as he did as a boy, we´d had to earn the right to dip our bread. He explained that his father would never let them soak their bread in the delicious mixture of oil, vinegar, salt and onion at the bottom of the salad until they´d first eaten their lettuce, tomato and cucumber, and that´s what we were served, a few bits of tomato, onion and oil in the bottom of a salad bowl – so good, that we soon dispensed with most of the artisan loaf that we´d been given.
El final de la ensalada
The chef set up his work station beside our table again and set to work blowtorching a tiny aubergine, a variety selected for its thick skin that allowed it to be cooked in this dramatic fashion. The smoky flavours of the aubergine with the dressing worked wonderfully with the Viña Mayor Reserva 2007 that we were now served.
Berenjenas tostadas y aliñadas
Rodrigo blowtorching a mini aubergine
The next course contained more meat that the rest of the meal put together, a perfectly cooked beetroot rice with goats cheese cream and mollejas – glands from sheep that are like very soft pieces of chicken breast. Rich, but with just four they weren´t over powering.
Arroz arborio, remolacha y mollejas
Then came a tartare – not of steak but of beetroot, apple and avocado. Bound with mustard you could have been fooled into thinking it was the real thing, although it tasted too good to be raw meat!
Tartar vegetal
We then moved onto the sweet dishes, served with a glass of Prosecco, where vegetables were used as never before: fennel, cucumber and burnt butter sorbet; “raices pivotantes” – carrots in myriad forms with a turnip vanilla cream and the “peach from the bottom of the Sangria” which had been injected with CO2 to impregnate it with red wine concentrate and give a fizzy sensation in the mouth.
Raíces pivotantes
The meal culminated with a sensational home-made cheese cake, so good that I wasn´t surprised when told that they´d taken it off the menu as no one used to order anything else!
All in all, a spectacular meal served with passion and flair by a very talented team. Forget the palace; this restaurant is worth making the trip to Aranjuez for.
14 course “revolución verde” tasting menu – 80€
Spain is delicious 