Our interview with the executive chef of the Hotel InterContinental El Jardin restaurant in Madrid and the most interesting dishes of the event that he hosted cooking alongside colleagues from all over Europe
A Sunday stroll around Madrid is perfect for catching theessence of an elegant city, cosmopolitan, but at the same time simple and genuine. People crowd the streets stopping to make some purchases, talk on a bench or take some sunbeam that irradiates the tireless even in the middle of autumn.
And among many people who come and go, they move and meet, there are those who are ready to celebrate a ritual that entertains the Madrilenes, the brunch.
More and more people in Madrid choose the Sunday to wake up late, meet friends and relatives and sit around a table to stand on a bridge that swings nicely between breakfast and lunch. With the calm of great occasions, but also with the desire to feel citizens of the world and enjoy the best habits.
And among the landmarks of the city for brunch we find the proposal of El Jardin, the restaurant of the Intercontinental Hotel.
Located north-east of the historic center, it has won everyone thanks to the culinary proposals of its resident chef, Miguel de la Fuente. We met him on the occasion of Taste of the Intercontinental Life, an exclusive event that brings together all the chefs at the InterContinental Hotels & Resorts.
The kitchen for Miguel de la Fuente
I read about his academic past in the Fine Arts. When did the career of chefs come? And what link does it exist in its style between cuisine and art?
"But how do you know these things?" He asks, amused. "I've always liked art, so much so that I wanted to be a painter. But I also liked eating and being with my mom and my grandmother and watching them cook. Then I joined these passions and I was not mistaken: every day I go into the kitchen I do it with the same motivation of the first day. I live in contact with the stove, but the artistic dimension is present in the creation and decoration of each dish. Cooking is art .
Many dishes inspired by the Orient appear in the menu of the El Jardin restaurant. How were they born?
"The owners of the restaurant, which are Catalan, provide constant training for the chefs. The oriental dishes that we have in paper are born from a beautiful training dedicated to this theme that we did in Frankfurt with a chef from Tokyo. It is a wonderful way to break down every cultural frontier, grow and offer our customers, through international dishes, tastes that make them feel at home ".
Tell us something about the ajoblanco, your dish we tasted today in the Taste of the InterContinental Life lunch menu.
"It's a dish that speaks of our gastronomy. A cold, summer preparation that has a great history. It was born to reuse the bread of the day before, almonds and Andalusian oil. A combination of products from the south of Spain perfect to create a fresh, delicious cream. Today we have completed it with a raw shrimp and some flowers to represent the soul of the land and sea of Andalusia .
One of his most famous proposals is Sunday brunch. How was it born and how does it relate to the city of Madrid?
«He was born in 2011, when I arrived here after a work experience in the Basque Country. I proposed it to express my culinary personality. I liked the idea of creating a real gastronomic theater where the actors are the customers, but also all the hotel staff. To fill the scene the buffet, or a circular table with different islands, satellites where they find space chefs involved in the creation of sushi, sashimi and hot Japanese and Peruvian dishes, a corner dedicated to cutting the yamón, a table full of national cheeses and international and bocadillos in mini version, to taste as many dishes as possible. To wait for the guests there are in fact also salads, various types of rice, fish, meat, but also a buffet entirely dedicated to small pastries. To make brunch special, however, is also the fact that we have dedicated it to everyone. The little ones can in fact have fun at a table dedicated to them among mini laboratories, tastings and games .
And to return to the relationship between Madrid and the brunch created by Miguel de la Fuente, there is a detail to report. This great gastronomic theater goes on stage every Sunday from 13.30 to 16.30 about, a time well away from the Anglo-Saxon morning meal idea.
Taste of the InterContinental Life
The great occasion in which we met Miguel de la Fuente recalled all the colleagues of the other InterContinental Hotels & Resorts in the chef's kitchen. A special event able to tell the creativity and the gastronomic experience spread in all the restaurants of the hotels of the group, but also the character and style of each chef residents.
To open the menu a review of the French fish soup in milkshake version signed by Cédric Mery, the starred chef of the Alcyone restaurant in Marseille. Following the Vampire Ceviche enriched with a mango and sangria sorbet by Daniel Quiñones Espinosa, sous chef of Ella Canta, restaurant of the Intercontinental London Park Lane. You return to the Alcyone proposals with a crispy crab accompanied by caviar and smoked tea.
Follow theAjoblanco malagueño proposed by the resident chef of Madrid Miguel de la Fuente and the Foie gras with beetroot puree, raspberries and spices created by Miguel Laffan, the creative chef of the Atlantic in Estoril in Portugal. For the sixth dish of the Eddy Melo menu, the AKLA executive chef of Lisbon brought the Cod Lagareiro, one of the most authentic dishes of the Portuguese tradition. The tasting of the continues rabbit with truffle and cabbage of the chef Eberhart Lange of the Yugos of Berlin and of the veal cappelletti, the unexpected proposal by Luis Rendon Rodríguez, senior sous chef at Theo Randall at the InterContinental London Park Lane. To close, the wonderful raspberry meringue signed by Sophie De Bernardi, the pastry chef of Café de la Paix I at the InterContinental Paris Le Grand.
In the gallery below, the chefs and the dishes of the event.
