The restaurant trio EnjoyOriol Castro, Eduard Xatruch and Mateu Casañas, climb to the top: in June they won silver from The World’s 50 Best Restaurants (second best restaurant in the world) and on Tuesday with the triple gold of the Michelin guide stars. And the second book has just gone on sale, ‘Enjoy Vol.2’, that tells about the work of this restaurant that opened in December 2014 on Villarroel street in Barcelona: path of the decade, then.
The creative capacity of the trio is impressive and year after year they produce dozens of recipes, around 80, and They sharpen new techniques or perfect old ones.
We have asked them for a selection of the best dishes they have created during 2023 of tri-stardom and why.
Attention to the last one: a predessert that compromises.
Flavor Concentration
“This is a very basic dish in its conception, but it entails important reflection. We wanted the customer will reflect on the taste and the taste of the products. It is a dish where, on top of a light tomato gelatin, we put 12 different sproutseach one with a very marked taste.
We accompany the plate with a paper where we explain the type of sprout it is and the flavor it has. In this way, the client realizes that a thing as small as A simple sprout packs a lot of flavor.
When creating dishes, it is very important how we use all the products, both the noblest and the most austere, such as a simple sprout. In a dish, each element is very important… It may have happened to all of us to eat a wonderful dish that includes a flower or a sprout to decorate and that, by eating it, spoils the harmony. What we are looking for is this reflection: that In the kitchen each product is super important when it comes to whether or not to include it in the dish.”
Golden Egg
“This dish is based on a technique that we developed in 2021: multicolor spherification, which consists of being able to cover a sphere with another product. Within our intention of trying to translate creativity into very clear and defining concepts, we think of this sphere, which contains a sauce of prawn chilly crab and it is golden in color, to make a fried egg, a preparation that is recognizable to everyone.
It is a fried egg where the yolk is not yolk, “but it is a ball with a very intensely flavored prawn chilly crab sauce, which we accompany with a few touches of Asian inspiration.”
‘Calçotada 2023′
“Traditional traditional dish in which we change the texture of the ‘calçot’ offering it freeze-dried and thus achieving a crispier texture.
In addition, we accompany it with a romesco ‘miso’, which has a deeper taste and an oil made from the skins of the ‘calçots’. Additionally, in a glass we serve a ‘dashi’ infused with ‘calçot’. It is the updated tradition with applied creativity”.
Lychee Pearl Necklace
“It is the union of two Enjoy techniques: the multi-spherification of 2016 with the ‘delux’ spherification of 2021. And so we have created an edible jewel in which the sphere is made of lychee juice and ‘yuzu’, a gin and rose water ice cream, forest strawberries, tangerine essence and a creamy lychee and yuzu sauce on top of the sorbet.”
‘Almond Coulant’
“New technique developed this year in which we apply the nixtamalization which is used in South America traditionally in different preparations, achieving surprising ‘coulant’ textures. We have made it with almonds, roquefort, pumpkin seeds…”.
‘White asparagus bao’
“Technique of 2023. We make a ‘bao’ dough to the siphon and we steam it, achieving very light textures with all the tastes one can imagine, both sweet and salty. We have made different versions: white asparagus, beet and corn.”
Marinated mackerel belly with candied robellones and mushroom vinegar
“In this case we make our own mushroom vinegar. With the vinegar we make a pickle with which we build a sea and mountain that we can accompany with a belly of candied mackerel or oysters. We add pine nuts, candied fir cone and glacial ficoide”.
black apple
“This is a technique that we developed in 2022: we have applied it to fruit. In this specific case, an apple, which we peel and vacuum pack. Then we have it in a stove at 60 degrees for 60 days. What we get is a visibly black apple, with incredible texture and depth of flavor. With it we build a dish inspired by the traditional apple ‘tatin’. We heat the black apple with butter ‘noisette’ and we accompany it with vanilla whipped cream, with ‘noisette’ butter ice cream and pieces of flourless puff pastry (a technique that we also developed in Mejorar in 2018)”.
Fig meringue
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“We develop meringues without clear, using the flax husk. We make a meringue from a fig leaf infusion and accompany it with a daisy slushie, also infused with the fig leaf, and candied green figs when it’s time.”
Rings
“To begin the sweet sequence in a poetic way and as a symbol of our commitment to gastronomy, creativity, our teams and our clients, we offer the client some rings made of chocolate with flowers, nuts, etc. They are like a sweet ‘snack’ to start the dessert sequence. For the client to take the ring, we first aromatize their hands with rose water that we pour straight from a rose”.
‘Enjoy Vol.2 / 2018-2020’
The triumvirate of ‘Enjoy’ has released the second volume of their magnum opus. Together with the first, they cover from 2014 to the difficult 2020, six of the ten years that they will celebrate in December 2024. Big ideas, great weight: two volumes, 526 pages and 6.2 kilos to show 96 selected recipes. The shelves of the bookstore shake.