Mugaritz is No. 4 on the list of 50 Best Restaurants in the World. It is in the low hills, about 25 km from San Sebastian in a serene setting, reminiscent of the japanese gardens in the Dandenongs.
Mugaritz opened in 1998 under Executive Chef Andoni Luis Aduriz. It was awarded it's first Michelin Star in 2000 and its second in 2005. It has been on the Worlds Best Restaurants list since 2006 and is currently No. 4.
There are more Michelin starred restaurants in San Sebastian per square metre, than anywhere else in the world, including Japan. I don't really understand the 'square metre' measurement but that's how it is stated.
Here is their website, choose English - Mugaritz
Here is their website, choose English - Mugaritz
Recognise this man? Paul agreed to wear a shirt and long pants with his thongs.
I couldn't believe we were invited into the kitchen. Dan Hunter, lately of the Royal Mail, Dunkeld and about to be currently of Brea, Birragurra (George Biron's former Sunnybrea), spent time honing his skills in this kitchen as an intern.
Correction 4 Oct 13: Paul tells me he spent two years here as head chef. Sorry, Dan!
Chef Javi Vergara obviously keeps in touch with Dan Hunter as he knew the re-opening was to be in November and he made reference to the limitations Hunter experienced at Dunkeld where he did not own the business, as well as to being sworn to secrecy when Hunter bid to buy Sunnybrea.
The boss himself, Executive Chef Andoni Luiz Aduriz, who heads up a team of 40 people with an average age of 28 years. There were more staff than guests the Saturday we went for lunch.
There are two of these spectacular glossy black boards in the kitchen, each listing the seasonal ingredients available in the locale from which they draw their provisions. I think one board (the one in this photo) was for vegetables and fruit and the other for meat, seafood, poultry etc. But I can't be sure because it was all written in Basque! I might have had some hope in Spanish because there is some commonality with Italian, but Basque - no hope.
No ingredients remain in the kitchen longer than 24 hours. I hate to think that the produce they don't use is wasted - I got the impression that it is 'moved on' to other establishments.
While touring the kitchen we were offered a freshly cooked leaf in tempura with cinnamon cream. It's hard to oggle, take photos, speak to the staff who wanted to know about Australia and our trip along the Bay of Biscay - and eat a hot, crunchy tempura leaf - all at the same time!
And no, I don't know what type of leaf it was, but I suspect it was growing outside the kitchen door less than 24 hours (probably 24 minutes) ago.
The champagne we chose for our aperitif was glorious.
I don't know if every diner received a printed menu, but certainly the very interested people did. So, given I had a menu, all I had to remember to do was to take a photo of each dish - not as easy as it sounds. I have cross referenced my photos to my menu and the names of the dishes appear in italics.
Each table was served different dishes based on the quantity of produce the kitchen had at its disposal. So each table would have received a different printed menu.
Our first dish in the finger food section was called Edible stones (above). If you thought the stone was edible you removed it from its hot (edible) ashes and dipped it into the mayonnaise. It was a potato, but until you picked it up, you'd swear it was a stone.
Small crustaceans in a pocket. Real prawn crackers served on a hot stone. Intense.
Smoked trout and 100% lobster. Those are three tiny onions on top of the trout and there were some tiny broad beans in there as well, served on a crisp of something. Very subtle.
This dish came on a warmed wooden board. It was Grilled toast of bone marrow with herbs and radish ash. The radish ash was a glossy thick coating on a leaf. This was absolute heaven - crisp, savoury, rich, delicious.
The only disappointing dish of the whole 28 we were served was the last of the finger foods. This was Lamb tenderloin and dried onions. We ate the leaf as well, which I think was some type of amaranth, and it swamped the delicate flavour of the lamb. If we hadn't eaten the leaf, maybe the lamb by itself would have had more flavour.
All of these dishes on the degustation menu are two-bite serves.
All of these dishes on the degustation menu are two-bite serves.
This is the first dish with cutlery. I just loved this one. It was a chilled dish called Blanched morning glory and dark seeds powder. Oh, yes?
Well, I just loved these tiny sweet carrots, in carrot cream with little white flowers on top, so much that I forgot to photograph the morning glory which was like a stem of green leaves, barely cooked and lightly dressed in olive oil with crunchy, flavoured powder on top. A hit with both of us.
We had been drinking a fabulous cold climate white from the Galicia region near Santiago de Compostela with our finger food - a Trico 2008 (Albarino grapes). To begin the fish courses the sommelier suggested this Redoma 2011, a blend of five different grape varieties from northern Portugal. These two wines were the best whites I have ever tasted.
Oh, best not forget the dish (above). Almonds are in season and these were so delicate we couldn't tell if they had been cooked or just warmed a little. The dish was called Fresh almonds with filipendula ulmaria which is the flower, a herb called Queen of the Meadow.
I had to touch the plate to check that it was porcelain and not a serviette draped over something.
This was a stunner. Cold peach and razor clams. The peach was pureed and frozen and the razor clams were tiny, sweet morsels of sea.
Threads of crab with vegetable mucilage, macadamias and pink peppercorns. Crab always leaves me underwhelmed and in this instance it was overpowered by the macadamias.
Everyone received a bonus dish, an extra which was not listed on the menu. Just in case we were loosing interest, or bored we were each given a little hessian bag of knuckles and an instruction mat on how to play a game. The winner was to get a surprise.
It turned out that we each got a tiny glass of rich, warmed chicken consommé (if it hadn't been warmed it would have been a thick jelly) and the winner of the knuckles game shared his prize with me - the best black caviar either of us have ever tasted, and a generous serving to boot. This dish was another winner.
Egg yolk tucked in with an anenome blanket. They served bread in a linen serviette pocket with this dish, but no spoon. You needed the bread to mop up all the yummy egg yolk.
Called A salad in soup, these were tiny, tiny, cos lettuce hearts in a broth made from crustaceans and lemon verbena.
Called Cantabrian sea Bonito (tuna) and dark Marmitako sauce. Google tells me that Marmitako is a typical Basque peasant dish resembling a tuna and potato stew with Basque pimentos. This interpretation was a firm layer of creamed potato, onion and spices topped with a slice of tuna and covered with a sticky reduction of what I can only assume is pimentos. A few salted fresh almonds on top. It should have been fabulous, but I found it ho-hum.
Turbot, pil-pil and roe. I had to Google this one, too. Pil-pil is a sauce of Basque origin, made from the oil the fish has been cooked in plus garlic and hot, chilli-like pimentos. Turbot is similar in shape to flounder. Very, very nice.
Sweatbread of suckling lamb with seasonal mushrooms and garlic flowers.
Sometimes it doesn't pay to have so much detail. Once I saw how small the sweetbreads were I realised how young the lamb was. Yes, I did eat it. Yes, it was delicious. But I did have concerns.
The red we enjoyed with these heavier flavours was Altos de Losada 2008 (Mencia grapes) from the Castille y Leon region; Leon was also part of our road trip.
This dish was challenging the bone marrow toast for piece-de-resistance. Iberian pork tail with sour leaves and creme fraiche. The small square pieces of meat had been flattened, the skin crisp and succulent, the meat gelatinous and tender. Fabulous!
We took the last of our red wine outside and along came Smashed and dressed fruits with a little jug of melon juice. The summer melons in Spain seem to be available everywhere - they are a bit like honeydew melons but more intense.
Paul is looking pretty pleased with the world.
This was Native cocoa and salted mexican pepper mint but it is gone. It was a large circle of mint leaf coated with chocolate on either side. It was not dipped in chocolate; you could see the green mint leaf sandwiched between the chocolate layers. The mint leaf was very peppery. There was a little extra pepper and salt flakes on top. Native cocoa and salted mexican pepper mint - was very clever!
Frozen almond turran. By the time I discovered that turran is like nougat, someone had demolished his slice.
This was so delicious. Roasted peach with rock tea - one quarter of a hot, roasted peach, in its skin, with a little mouth popping, granulated powder on top - the type that I have seen Heston Blumenthal use in those celebrity TV shows of his.
This one lost me a bit but Paul thought it showed what mastery they have of their creative ability and skills - Edible paper of leaves and flowers. I would have liked it a bit more if it was either sweet or sour or salty, but it was a bit nothing.
We ordered our coffee thinking we had finished because we had consumed everything on the menu plus the two extra dishes served, when along comes this huge wooden tower. I thought it was another game, but no, we were advised 'It is the seven deadly sins - look on the back of your menu.'
Sure enough, there they are on the back of the menu - Pride, Envy, Wrath, Gluttony, Greed, Lust, Sloth.
And this for a woman who has just completed reading Dan Brown's Inferno - referenced to Danté's 'Inferno' and condemning personkind to the torments of hell according to their sins of pride, envy, wrath, gluttony, greed, lust and sloth. I think either Mr. Dante or Mr. Brown had the order a little different, but never mind .....
In our wooden Japanese tower, Pride was two hollow golden eggs. Clever!
Envy was large and small chocolate coins buried in edible soil of bitter chocolate chips.
Wrath was these tangy cubes of jellied something with a green, raw, zingy but sweet taste.
Gluttony was ten chocolate balls (between two) that dissolved to nothing in the mouth.
The layer for Greed was empty.
Lust was molten strawberry chocolate to be eaten (or is that, to be fed to each other) with little paddles.
And finally, Sloth was the ultimate - a reconstructed pear, poached in liquer until it was saturated, but still firm. One wonderful mouthful!
Black toilet paper. I tried to use the minimum amount. Not on ... really Senor Aduriz ... not on!
The picture of a happy man.
And as if you haven't had enough, you might like to have a look at this 2011 menu review:
Gourmet Traveller - Mugaritz 2011
Gourmet Traveller - Mugaritz 2011
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