Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Chef's Tables
149
Commerç 24
Foam, The Next Generation
Barcelona, Spain
The prime place to sit in this sleek, trendy
Barcelona hot spot is at the high table
right next to the brightly lit open kitchen,
where you get a clear view of all the
molecular gastronomy action. Plenty of
creative young chefs have breezed
through the El Bulli kitchen, hoping to pick
Ferran Adrià's brain, but Carles Abellán
worked there for nearly a decade, becom-
ing one of Adrià's most trusted disciples.
Now that he's got his own restaurant, it's
fascinating to see how the master's ideas
flower in Abellán's gifted hands.
Abellán describes his cooking as
“glocal”—a hokey catchphrase, perhaps,
but it's a winning marriage of global cui-
sines (Asian, Italian, and American figure
prominently) with local Catalonian recipes
and ingredients. The menu is designed to
offer both small tastes—honoring the
regional tapas tradition—and regular-
sized a la carte portions, as well as larger
dishes to be shared communally by the
table. As at El Bulli, the tasting menus—
here called “festival menus”—are the way
to go, not least because menu descrip-
tions can't possibly convey the full inven-
tiveness of Abellán's cooking.
The menu is always changing, but sig-
nature dishes include lots of seafood—the
tuna tartare in a pool of egg-yolk vinai-
grette, the meticulous vanilla-scented
salmon-on-salmon sashimi, a drinkable
mousse of black cod brandade and
artichokes, delicate ravioli of cuttlefish
and morel mushrooms—and, for those
who'd like a little heartier fare (something
often lacking at El Bulli), a few surprisingly
straightforward choices like grilled beef
entrecote with potatoes, or a baked egg-
plant with Roquefort, pine nuts, and mush-
rooms. Perhaps his most iconic dish is a
playful concoction called the Kinder Egg
(
kinder
as in the German word for
children)—an eggshell filled with soft egg,
truffle, and potato foam, a molecular gas-
tronomer's take on the classic Spanish
potato omelet.
In complete contrast to the rustic look
of El Bulli, Commerç 24 is an industrial-chic
rehab of an old salting house, a modernist,
minimalist vision of slate-gray floors and
table tops, angular furniture, cast-iron col-
umns, splashes of red and yellow, and
dramatic spot lighting. If you can't book
the kitchen-view table, try for a seat at the
bar, where there's also a good view of the
cooks at work.
Carrer Comerç 24, Barcelona (
&
34/
93/319-2102;
www.commerc24.com).
(
El Prat (13km/8 miles).
L
$$$
Montecarlo,
Les Ramblas 124
(
&
34/93-412-04-04;
www.montercarlo
bcn.com). $$
Duques de Bergara,
Berg-
ara 11 (
&
34/93-301-51-51;
www.hoteles-
catalonia.com).
