Tags
Ferran Adria, Food, Holidays, Jimmy Choo, Madrid, Restaurants, Spain
Chemistry was not my strongest subject at school. Once we’d covered how to make homemade fireworks, all those stories of protons, neutrons and electrons seemed rather irrelevant. That was until I had the experience of eating at the Michelin-starred restaurant Terraza del Casino di Madrid managed by the king of culinary creativity Ferran Adria and came out realising that chemistry could have its uses.
On a romantic city break to the Spanish capital as a treat to start off the new year, our luck was in. A last-minute cancellation due to illness – possibly self-inflicted considering how the Spaniards like to party and the date (2nd Jan) – we found ourselves with a free table at one of the most chic and coveted eateries in town. The perfect opportunity to don my new 14cm heeled patent-red Jimmy Choo‘s, we arrived at the majestic Casino di Madrid and were promptly shuffled into an old wooden lift which wobbled and creaked its way up to the 3rd floor restaurant.
Dress code at the Casino is rigid, men must wear jackets and gentlemen who find themselves in town without the right apparel are lent a jacket for the evening (which can get interesting depending on your size and shape).
The decor is somber, light blue velvet drapes, dark parquet flooring: it seems the creativity is kept for the kitchen. Ferran Adria may manage the place but the head chef is Paco Roncero, Adria’s outstanding “disciple”, who skilfully mixes the creative with more traditional dishes. The place is full of older, well-presented Madrileno couples and families quietly savouring what’s being brought out from the heavy white kitchen doors.
Within minutes of being seated we’re presented with “lulada” the welcome drink made of the lulo fruit, originating from Columbia. Nice and refreshing. Interesting without but nothing too bizarre or acidic. Next up was the “olive oil butter”, a thin wafer, leaf and something looking like a travel-sized toothpaste tube making this the most novel way to serve a piece of bread.
For those who really want to indulge in the experience, there’s a tasting menu which must be served to the whole table but for those – such as myself – who like to pick and chose what they’re eating, the a’ la carte menu has enough options to leave you stuck for choice.
The a’ la carte option still allows you to taste the interesting snacks and in fact shortly after ordering, we’re presented the carrot and liquorice curls, seed mix, trout roe in tempura and black olive muffins. Nothing is quite what you would expect – savoury looks sweet, sweet tastes savoury.
I opted for the fish cooked at 40 degrees with deconstructed tartar sauce and was presented with something that looked like a work of art. The sauce was carefully split into various elements and the black blob in the centre of my plate which looked like a black jelly baby was in fact an olive – a liquid olive, the delicious oilvey nectar had been dropped in a solution to make it coagulate on the outside leaving a pitch black bubble. The salmon, cooked at only 40 degrees had the most sublime texture, melting in the mouth, neither cooked nor raw.
For main course, I carried on with the fish theme and opted for the Monkfish with mushrooms, iron macaroni and mangosteen. The sweetness of the mangosteen, which resembled very sweet lychees, were perfectly balanced by the surprisingly meaty flavours in the mushrooms and carnose texture of the fish.
The meat looked equally inviting – even for a non-carnivore – although rather more traditional with the Beef sirloin being served with pesto gnocchi. The deserts once again tugged at the imagination, each of the 8 enticing combinations on the menu left you wondering what form they would have.
The “Three Chocolates” was a combination of chocolate in various colours and textures of chocolate, a must for chocolate junkies. The coconut lychee looked like real lychee shells but were made of coconut and white chocolate filled with soothing lychee sorbet. The most interesting was the chocolate, in an almost jelly -like form, topped with powdery matcha tea and freeze-dried red fruits.
Just in case there was any chance at the experience could stop there, coffee was accompanied by a tray of petit fours: frangelico and lemon candy, a ‘Filipino’ which looks like a donut but which is filled with chocolate liquid which melts on your tongue and slowly trickles down your throat, (the waiter considerately whispers that this should be eaten whole in order to avoid embarrassing mishaps). The cocoa and fried corn toffee sponge almost squeaks as you bite into it, with a texture like natural sponge.
Eating at the Terraza is almost a mental exercise, a brain teaser – what you see is not always what you will taste or feel. The unusual shapes and textures are a result of skill, imagination and a certain amount of chemical artistry in the kitchen..
So, tottering out on my Jimmy Choo’s, I started to wonder if I should have paid more attention in those chemistry classes – it seems chemistry can have some interesting relevance after all…
La Terraza del Casino di Madrid
tasting menu – 135 euro in the evening, 69.12 at lunch.
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