The chef opens a new restaurant in which he creates his own formulas for the typical stuffed dish
There are many Italian pasta restaurants and those with ‘dumplings’ have also proliferated, but RavioXO, which opens this Monday in Madrid“it is neither one thing nor the other” but creativity and the “traveling DNA” of David Munoz applied to pasta in multiple ways.
Perfectionist like few, has worked a year and a half to develop it; wanted to learn everything about pasta and paid two workers from the Hakkasan Group, one of the world references in contemporary Chinese cuisine, to teach him and his team for four months, in addition to hiring two experts “pastaiolos” from the also international Big Mamma Group.
“I wanted to have the perfect technique from China and Italy and then allow myself the licenses I want, as long as we are able to defend it on a technical and intellectual level,” he says.
On that basis it has created its own formulas, because “each filling needs a different dough” and uses different types of flourstarches and fermentations for each preparation, depending on the content and the chosen cooking technique: charcoal, steam, boiled…
At RavioXO, which turns the diner into a spectator of everything that happens on the great stage that is its open kitchen, the menu is unlike anything currently on offer in Spain. What was initially conceived as a tribute to DiverXO’s 15th anniversary, when in 2007 they began to serve the first plated ‘dumplings’, it has become “a tribute to pasta with creativity as the only rule”.
Dishes that lived in DiverXO
Three dishes recall how DiverXO paved the way in this field with steamed bread with fried eggs and black pudding (2009), steamed muffin with creamy trumpets of death (2011) and Hong Kong Madriz stew (2014), years in which he achieved the first, second and third Michelin stars, respectively.
All of them revised and to which new creations are added devised by Muñoz and the executive chef of Grupo XOPablo Sobrino, such as the wontollini soup with mortadella tortellini in a spicy chicken broth, the rice floss cannelloni with guinea fowl and aerated béchamel or the ‘vitello chili tonnato’ rigatoni, in which the pasta takes on a powerful grilled flavor thanks to the micro-perforated wok where it is made.
With the less noble parts of a Galician blond cow steak they make a Mexican bridal mole for a ‘jiaozi’ (a type of ‘dumpling’) crowned by meat cured in koji (fungus) and dried, which is accompanied by a liquid farmhouse salad; and presents the ‘shui mai’ in inverted form with wings, red shrimp, Cantonese sauce and boneless and fried chicken feet.
These are some proposals for a menu that is completed with a tasting menu that also gives Muñoz’s “traveling DNA” account.
“Pasta is one of the most appreciative receptacles of flavor, but it’s so widespread and sometimes so hackneyed that it can seem like anything goes. Here we do everything: pasta, sauces, fermented, cured... When they are made from start to finish, the quality is much higher and the possibilities are different,” he argues.
The cocktail bar, run by Alberto Sánchez, the group’s executive mixologist and who has worked at StreetXO in Madrid and London, plays a fundamental role in RavioXO’s proposal and has its own bar to enjoy its versions of the bellini or the caipirinha, or the cognac and truffle bonbon.
“We try to follow the line of food, with powerful, clean, fine and elegant flavors that do not saturate. The current cocktail bar follows that line of elegance and minimalism,” he points out.
All this in a space “refined and cosmopolitan” atmosphere, which for a month will only open at night and will soon have a terrace. Shortly after the reservations opened, the places were covered for a few weeks.
Transfer
Muñoz, who a few days ago revolutionized social networks in a collaboration with the singer Rosalia to create the sandwich MotoUmamifinalizes the transfer of StreeXO Madrid to a larger location, plans the opening of more restaurants of this brand and prepares the transfer of DiverXO to another larger space for January 2024, keeps its creativity intact and has ‘reconciled’ with the world .
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He can’t stop thanking his wife. Cristina Pedroche, and her psychologistbut also to the management team, a fundamental part of a staff of nearly 150 workers.
“How do we manage to maintain the level in everything we do? Leaving the management in the hands of experts, which allows me to cook much better. We Spanish chefs do not understand that and I think it is crucial,” he claims.