Magnates,unique bluefin tuna and talent shows: Welcome to Espacio Montoro
Summary:
A logbook by Sensei Hiroshi Umi.
The chef and team at Espacio Montoro (in the Albufera region of Alicante) love making life hard for themselves in gastronomic terms, with every exquisite ingredient they handle. And diners are delighted at these culinary pirouettes, a tartar of Fuentes bluefin tuna loin which comes in the form of a chilled mousse, with soy, lime juice, EVOO, a fermented toffee of umeboshi (Japanese plum) and a few sprigs of dill to give that final freshness. It is served in a mould in the form of a jet black “M”, a reference to the name of this intriguing venue, made of flour, water, olive oil and activated charcoal to give it its black hue.
“We like experimenting with fermented produce,” mentions one of the sous-chefs, Pablo Linares, while finishing off the dish for the session. “It gives a sharp, bitter, sweet flavour, plenty of umami balanced with the fermentation. These are unique flavours that we can’t achieve without that process,” agrees executive chef Juanfran Pérez, aged just 23.
Experimentation, surprise, imagination
Halfway down the menu, the tuna belly with escabeche broth confirms the overarching narrative approach. Experimentation with meaning, surprise and imagination. With parts chosen from the fatty belly of the titan of the seas, a tiger nut escabeche broth to give a hint of the surroundings, in communion with a gel of honey, fat from the fish itself and a bed of bluefin tuna skin, “soft as a silk handkerchief”. A wonderful sensation in the mouth, profound and sparkling.
It is followed by further dazzling plot twists, with tataki brochettes using the fattiest part of the loin, seared on the robatta, the cooking process cut short with iced water, and then tempered with a blowtorch, this supreme morsel embellished with a flavourful broth made from the bones, 12 year-old whisky to arrest the cooking, a dark caramel made with the whisky itself, and accompanied as a final flourish by a shabu-shabu of hong, mushrooms and truffle, and finely diced tuna belly. On very few occasions has the author of this journal witnessed such audacity in raising tuna to another level through technical prowess.
Having first opened during that critical time prior to the pandemic (which forced it to close), Espacio Montoro would be categorised as one of those experience restaurants, where both lunch and dinner overflow with gastronomic significance, to serve up different, memorable emotions. “We opened up our catering service and gastronomic venue in 2019, and in March we were in lockdown. Two weeks later I decided not to furlough the team and we came up with a delivery service. We have a cake and bread bakery and even a pottery kiln which provides all the restaurant’s crockery. The delivery service proved such a success that it became a restaurant in central Alicante, by the name of MoMA. We reinvented a whole load of things, above all with a charitable approach as AGS (Alicante Gastronomic Solidarity). Then in 2020 we started functioning as a gastronomic venue. Ever since, we’ve been sold out, every table full for every service, growing, consolidating, improving our service day by day, greater technique, more finesse, more professionalism, in pursuit of our identity,” explains Pablo Montoro, the leading light, founding partner and culinary helmsman of this seven-headed hydra with its non-stop catering. “We handle 40 weddings a year, it’s amazing,” he adds.
Pablo Montoro: From Top Chef to Repsol Sun
The story of Pablo Montoro (Alicante, 1978) is a marathon which is now all coming together. Thirty years in the kitchen, with intervening detours and cinematic twists. Or at least televisual. He was a finalist on the last season of Top Chef, and spent years travelling the world as the private chef of a Russian multimillionaire. “I come from a family of cobblers and grew up in Elda. I have no restaurant roots, although my sister may have given me something of a taste for cooking. I studied at Alicante’s CDT catering school in the 1990s. I worked at traditional restaurants, at the Dani Frías Tapería, at the Hotel Maya, with the former head chef of the Ritz Hotel, then went to Lasarte in San Sebastian to work with Berasategui. I was at Hacienda Benazuza and elBulli between 1999 and 2004, in Chicago at Charlie Trotter… It was thanks to the influence of the last of those that I came back here at the age of 25 and set up a vegetarian restaurant, Tabulé. When the recession hit in 2008, I changed tack and went to work as executive chef at SHA Wellness Clinic, in Albir, proclaimed the best wellness centre in the world. I was there until 2013. It was then that I was hired by the Melinchenko family, one of the world’s richest, as their private chef to create a macrobiotic and vegetarian menu for them, known as Black Diet, super healthy. I travelled all round the globe with them, and discovered the cuisines of the world, going to the best restaurants and markets. There was no home base. They had houses all round the world,” Montoro recounts.
“At the end of that stage, I entered Top Chef and reached the final. That once again opened up avenues on the Spanish scene. This restaurant is the fruit of all that came before. I opened it with my business partner, Manuel, who owns the property. But everything you see here is my idea”.
Espacio Montoro boasts a Repsol Sun and is recommended by the Michelin Guide. The sought-after star is getting ever closer, and would be the end result of painstaking efforts. With a good two and a half hours of experience, diners start off standing at Black Tech for an aperitif, continuing at High Line, the outdoor Zen garden; showcooking comes courtesy of Cocoon Lab and its soft, snowy lines, with everything taking place before our eyes, and then we end up seated at Geoda Verde, plunging guests into this style of cuisine with Mediterranean roots, including forays to Italy, France, Spain, but also Japan, without any fusion. The finer points of the cuisine here include lobster, shrimp, langoustine, tiger nuts, wasabi, wagyu, goat from the Ronda mountains served in colorá lard, turbot al pil-pil, parsnips, green and white haricot beans, Villena asparagus, teardrop peas, fermented and pickled ingredients…
With various menu options ranging from 95 to 205 euros, Pablo defines his recipes as “artisanal cuisine to create a unique experience. We don’t want to be disguising our dishes, they are there to be enjoyed by anyone. We do have a highly visual technical and creative approach, but we want people to know what they’re eating. And tuna is a Mediterranean ingredient which is a touchstone in our kitchen. It’s always on the menu, and always will be”.
