The innovative restaurant Diverxo, led by the young Spaniard David Muñoz, has becomethe eighth restaurant in Spain with three Michelin stars. In a gala held in the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the team behind Michelin presented the 2014 edition for Spain andPortugal. The guide contains many changes, especially in the category of restaurants with a star, which incorporates no less than twenty Spanish establishments.
The Michelin inspectors, who are often accused of much conservatism in their decisions,have opted this year for a restaurant and a style of cooking that is out of the conventional routes. David Muñoz is an unusual chef. Since he moved to Madrid in 2007, after workingfor a while in London, David has been surprising its customers for its exceptional creativityand intelligence to merge different cuisines. David´s cuisine is a game of aromas, flavors and textures. In just six years, the restaurant has managed to obtain three Michelin stars inunprecedented progression.
The person who decides to go to this restaurant will be surprised. In any case, what comes to the table has a lot of flavor, great intensity, great complexity and a lot of interactionbetween each of the ingredients. Everything is thought as a whole, as a symphony in which each element has a reason for being.
With Diverxo, Madrid retrieves a three-star establishment, something only achieved in 1987Zalacaín (until 1995). Diverxo joins the club of restautantes that according to the MichelinGuide, justify the trip and which also included El Celler de Can Roca (Girona), Arzak, MartinBerasategui and Akelarre (San Sebastián), Sant Pau (San Pol de Mar, Barcelona), QuiqueDacosta (Denia) and Azurmendi (Larrabetxu, Vizcaya).
There were of course disappointments that night: restaurants of the highest quality, withprobably more than enough merits for that third star and which had sounded hard in previous days (especially Santceloni in Madrid) but they will have to wait for the next edition.
There are also developments in the group of restaurants with two stars, which are currentlyseventeen. Can Fabes, owned by the late Santi Santamaria is no longer listed. But there are 2 new additions: one restaurant in the Canary Islands and one in La Rioja. MB is in the luxurious Abama in Tenerife, advised by Martin Berasategui and whose chef is ErlantzGorostiza. In la Rioja, El Portal in Ezcaray, a family restaurant where Francis Paniego is the chef.
As a result of the good work accomplished by many Spanish restaurants, no less thantwenty restaurants have been obtained for the first time a Michelin star. Many of them in Catalonia, but also in other regions of Spain. In provinces like Castellón (Cal Paradis), Teruel(Hospederia el Batan), Valladolid (La Botica) havel for the first time to have a restaurant with star.
The city of Barcelona has not achieved a 3 star . However, the city has no less than 19 restaurants with one. New restaurants on the list of Barcelona are 41 º and Tickets , owned both by the Adria brothers and that are, to some extent, a continuation of El Bulli. Other developments in Catalonia are L’ O, in San Frutos del Bages , Les Moles in Ulldecona (Tarragona ) and Malena in Gimenells ( Lleida ) .
There are also many new restaurants with stars in the Valencian Community. Besides theaforementioned Cal Paradis, these other restaurants also achieved a star El Poblet, in Valencia, (Owned by Quique Dacosta), Monastrell, in Alicante, and the very promisingBonAmb in Jávea. Two restaurants in Asturias, La Salgar, in Gijón, and Arbidel in Ribadesella.And two more in Toledo: La Casa del Carmen, in Olias del Rey, and Tierra in theValdepalacios Oropesa hotel. In Galici Arbore Veira da, in La Coruña, achieved one star. Last but not least, in Andalusia, the restaurant Alejandro in Roquetas de Mar (Almería) has regained the star it had lost.
All in all, great News for Spain and its gastronomy.
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