Mugaritz - A natural science of cooking...

Fried herbs from the garden with clashing aromas
Tempura garlic flowers

When you decide where to go for a holiday do you first look at the activities in the area? The museums you can visit? Whether the beach has waves? Or which restaurants you want to dine in??

For me it is the latter. And when looking at San Sebastián it was a difficult decision to make! Don't get me wrong, coming to San Sebastián was not the difficult decision, it was which of the 16 Michelin stars were going to be visited?! San Sebastián has the most Michelin stars per square meter than anywhere else in the world! But, again, don't get me wrong...there is so much more to dining in San Sebastián than just the Michelin star experiences.

The entire culture of San Sebastián is built around food. Their lifestyle of getting up late, heading down for a cafe (even con leche (with milk) if you like it that way), perhaps a little patate tortilla (potato omelette), a grand lunch and a siesta before heading out for some pintxos (more about these tasty little morsels in another blog post soon!), then a late dinner. I love it all! Not sure how I'd go with working in a place like this, I could just spend my whole time eating and drinking...oh how good can life get...

Michael and I about to embark on the culinary adventure!

So when the ratings for this years best restaurants came out and Mugaritz was named 4th best in the world (even though only having 2 Michelin stars) we thought we'd make this one our Michelin star destination for our two week stay in San Sebastián. Chef Andoni Luis Aduriz has been renowned by some of the cheffing greats as breaking barriers in the world of gastronomy in todays world. And we were not disappointed.

View of the kitchen from the herb garden outside

After settling the kids with their Spanish babysitter (this one at least spoke English unlike the last two in France), we took the 20 minute taxi ride south east of San Sebastián to Mugaritz. The kitchen opens at 8pm, and we arrived just after 7.30 so were welcomed into a little wooden cottage for  a pre dinner drink. Here we were greeted enthusiastically by our sommelier for the evening Nicolas Boise. Our first glass of Champagne - Royale Reserve Phiipponnat was the perfect start to our evening.

The dining room - note the centrepieces and lack of cutlery?! Very cool!

Just before 8 o'clock we were shown through to the dining room. The interior was like no other restaurant interior I have seen before. Quite stark, almost naked but strangely welcoming. All of the tables within the restaurant were very simply laid with a linen tablecloth and a single centrepiece of oddly designed plates. Some looked like plates had been horizontally twisted onto themselves, others looked like they had their bottoms removed and were moulded with several at different angles.

The first of many selfies that Joserra took during the evening!

We were welcomed by Joserra Calvo, our maitre'd (and photographer!) for the evening, and the blank canvas of the table was explained to us. The idea is that we were to start the meal by eating with our hands. It was also explained at this time that we were about to indulge in 22 courses, of which, barring any dietary intolerances or dislikes, the kitchen would put together for us, and after several courses to register our delights or distastes, a full menu would be presented to us to let us know what we were eating for the evening. Joserra's welcome into the restaurant let us know that we were in for far more than just a dining experience, but a true performance was about to begin.

Dish after dish then began to be delivered to us. Among these dishes, some were real stand outs - the duck tenderloin, the poultry juice with tofu (the absolute BEST - and I don't even like tofu!!), and the suckling lamb sweetbreads were my choice three top; a couple were not entirely to my liking - the ice shreds with scarlet shrimp perfume was a little too confronting for me and I was not entirely sure about the fermented rice served with the tanned lobster flesh; but all of them were truly amazing, inventive and creative as well as really awakening all of your senses. You could not just sit back and eat without thought, you had to taste, examine, taste again and really explore your palate throughout.

Edible stones - presented in a bowl of "dirt"

We weren't told what they were, so we had to bite in for the surprise! We sat there eating and loving them meanwhile getting very excited about what was to follow!!

"Fishbones" with nuances of lemon, garlic and cayenne pepper - beautiful little fish chips

Smoked toast, 100% lobster - even the toast was made of lobster - truly amazing

Fried herbs from the garden with clashing aromas - the tempura garlic flower  - beautiful flavours and the tempura batter was light and deliciously crispy

Blanched morning glory with dark seeds powder

Mouth watering bite. Duck tenderloin and dried onions - absolutely delicious - photo a little deceiving, this was literally two small mouthfuls

Ice shreds. Scarlet shrimp perfume - probably my least favourite dish, quite confronting and left a very dry mouth feel, but still very interesting

Tanned lobster flesh and fermented rice - the lobster was beautiful as was the entire dish when eaten together, however, the fermented rice by itself was a little strange when eaten by itself. The addition of the salt bush was beautiful.

The winning dish in my eyes - Poultry juice with tofu - it was almost like a creme caramel made from beautiful soft tofu, with a sauce made of a duck reduction that sat on the stove top for about 4 days. It was explained to us that the original quantity of about 50 litres, once reduced over the course of the 4 days then became about 2 litres...amazing

From the "Edible Stones" that were delivered to us first - which were actually potatoes with an ash like crust served with an aioli all the way through to the "Seven Deadly Sins" wooden canisters that came apart to unveil a little treat for each of the sins it was an experience that will not be forgotten. One that was enhanced by the characters of the staff and the curiosity of each dish as it was presented to us as well as the little interactions with things like the knuckles, which I'm sure will provide hours of entertainment on the remainder of our trip and will be a lovely little memory of our dining experience.

Sweet corn, milk cream and seeds

Showing what was hidden under the milk cream - there was also little bits of bacon in amongst the corn - beautiful!

A little game of knuckles to play to decide who gets to eat the caviar and set custard...I won but I was nice enough to let Michael eat some of the caviar too! And now we have a set of knuckles to play with on our trip!!

Egg yolk tucked in with an anemone blanket - as soon as I read the description for this dish I was excited...and it did not disappoint! The egg yolk just barely cooked was sublime!

Turbot. "Pil-pil" and roe

Red mullet in a butter of its own liver. Almonds and bread...this was beautiful, but getting a little full by this stage and still have so much more to go!! It was at this point that I started sharing with the man on the next table - Tony from London. He had a slightly different menu so I was only too pleased to allow him to have a few more tastes.

Another absolute winner! Sweetbread of suckling lamb with seasonal mushrooms.

Sheets of "entrecula", grilled steak emulsion and salt crystals

 And then it was time for desserts!

Mashed and dressed fruits. Concentrated melon juice

Native cocoa and salted Mexican pepper mint - this was a beautiful elegant dessert - just like an after dinner mint but NOT!

Candy caviar

Mocha in its lightest version - a light coffee flavoured foam/cake 

Frozen almond turron - do you remember ice cream wafer sandwiches - well these were a little like these but in a style we were becoming accustomed to here at Mugaritz 

And to finish...the Seven deadly sins

a collection of little sweet treats...unfortunately for me, I was fully sated by this stage and couldn't possibly fit another thing in!

Apart from the food, the rest of the experiences that we had in the restaurant made this a true Michelin starred experience. After we had eaten about 8 of our courses, and Joserra had deemed that we had "eaten enough and behaved ourselves" in his cheeky manner, we were guided into the kitchen to meet the Head Chef, Dani Lasa. Once in the kitchen we could see the staff, about 25 of them, all busily at work, mostly with tweezers, assembling each of the dishes. We were handed a macaron to sample and asked if we could describe the flavours. They were the most unusual macarons I'd ever eaten, sweet like a normal macaron, but also with a savoury note to them. I could definitely taste the flavour of foie gras in there but the pigs blood that the actual meringue was made with was a total surprise. Dani then explained that in the test kitchen where all of the experimentation takes place, they had been experimenting with pigs blood and they found that when they whipped it, it acted like egg whites, so thereby a perfect ingredient for the Italian meringue that is the basis for macarons could be made.

In the kitchen with Head Chef Dani

Joserra taking another selfie, this time with Andoni Luis Aduriz - the culinary master himself, behind all things creative here at Mugaritz

Pigs blood and foie gras macarons

The experimental kitchen

After explaining about the test kitchen, you can imagine what the next question was going to be...can we see it?? And as Joserra brought the next group of diners into the kitchen that has passed his rigorous set of criteria before being allowed into the back of house area, we were being led out the other door and up into the experimental kitchen. The restaurant closes for 4 months of each year - mid december to mid april for the pure purpose of experimenting - imagine?! Each ingredient is tested in hundreds of different ways with every combination known to maximise its potential - it can not be better explained than in their own words from their website:

A world of decoration and technical requirements, which will determine the outcome, hides behind every merely culinary movement. In Mugaritz, through collaboration with other disciplines and organizations, we investigate and innovate in this field in order to boost the properties of each culinary creation without neglecting any detail

The wines that our gorgeous sommelier Nicolas suggested for each section of the meal were a perfect compliment. Not knowing very much about the local wines, we needed all the advice we could get to make the right selection, and after careful consideration, Nicolas came up with 2 or 3 bottles of wine that we should choose from. Much to our surprise, his recommendations were not all in the highest price category either, as is so generally the case in Michelin starred restaurants.

To start we had a bottle of Guitian Acacia 11 from Valdeorras, La Tapada. This was a beautiful dry yet fruity white wine from a local producer. We moved onto an Albarello 09 from Ribeira Sacra, Adegas Algueira and then just because I don't know when to stop...we finished with a bottle of Negre Selecció 08, Pla i Levant, Toni Gelabert...I think it may be time to go home...ok, just one little glass of Cava to finish the evening! (And finish me off!!!)

Adios amigos!!