Accompanied by his right-hand man, Juanfran Valiente, head of creativity of the chef’s universe, at Gastronomika, Quique Dacosta (Quique Dacosta***, Dénia) reviewed the dishes for one of the acts from his current menu, focusing on the one for prawns, which are always boiled in sea water. “Cooking them like that changes the way we look at them”, he explained. Altogether, “we have been able to make about 50 prawn recipes, always using red prawns from Dénia from a contemporary perspective”.

As well as the prawn, from the “Maritime Allegory” act, “the second on the menu, the first one in the dining room after the appetisers on the terrace, Dacosta also showed some other presentations of his, “all arranged on a centrepiece based on marine motifs”. Fried dishes with chickpea flour (among other small complete crabs, “that we hadn’t used up to now”), sea fennel flower in tempura to dip in an oyster sauce or mullet roe covered in dried tomato (“Pure caviar”). The larder gradually builds up on the table, “just like what happens in the restaurant thanks to the hard work carried out by our dining room staff”.

Pieces of fish matured without salt also appeared “matured up to nine months due to humidity; salted dark tuna meat, “which looks like game”, or several dishes based on tuna marrow, one of them a blue-fin tuna Kombucha. “All dishes that hardly need any cooking. Apparently with very little technique applied to the produce”, the chef explained.

The chef from Alicante also ran through other dishes on the menu, such as the boletus cooked like an abalone with a nettle emulsion, “which recalls the insides of the abalone. A trompe d’oeil that is popular”; flame-grilled, finely sliced dried octopus “that looks like a Katsuobushi”, or the rice with carpaccio and oyster broth. “Paella, rice, it’s a religion for me. The most famous Spanish dish internationally. Our emblem”, Dacosta said in closing and claimed “to be in love with my local area, but I’m not a radical”.