Madrid, Dec 24 (EFE).- They have only been wearing the prestigious three Michelin stars in their premises for a few weeks, which are awarded by food critics to the best restaurants in the world, but it will not be the first time that Toño Pérez, from the Atrio restaurant in Cáceres (west) and the television chefs Hermanos Torres , prepare a Christmas menu to surprise.
To debut their new shine, they present two menus rooted in the Spanish classics of these holidays such as the suckling pig, a small pig that has just given up its mother’s milk, and the Iberian pig, a typical Spanish breed of animals raised in the wild and fed only on acorns, which are a luxury for the palate.
From the sea to the pasture, passing through the typical Christmas products, but incorporating the avant-garde in each of its elaborations, that is the recipe for this menu that can be tasted, at least from the imagination.
Iberian jowl flan and caviar; Iberian chocolate with rancid ham; crystal of celery and cardamom; canned royal quail rice with black olives and truffles are just some of the delicacies he offers.
The Atrio restaurant has put together a menu with 14 dishes to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s Eve, with suckling pig as its common thread and the times of the montanera, -the season in which pigs roam the pastures eating acorns and It started in October and will end in March.
To whet your appetite, chef Toño Pérez and his team propose three appetizers, one of them consisting of Lyonnaise with smoked bacon and oregano, to continue with a sea walk of tuna belly in butter and another with Iberian sliced meat, apple and smoked eel .
In the “snack in the meadow” section, the chef brings together a dish made up of ham, mayonnaise and tomato, as well as bacon, scallops with citrus fruits and spring onion whey, among the nine preparations that the diner will taste during the menu.
But they also mix the noble product of the pasture with caviar in their jowl and caviar flan.
“We wink at that more festive cuisine with slightly more luxurious products such as caviar,” explains Toño Pérez in an interview with EFE.
To culminate the tasting, a “sweet tooth pig” made up of an Iberian chocolate dessert with coffee and rancid ham, a cherry that is not a cherry, another plate of ham and cheese, matcha tea and quince cake and some candies.
Toño Pérez, with this menu, pays homage to his land, Extremadura, one of the three regions of Spain where the Iberian pig is raised, along with Andalusia and the province of Salamanca, in Castilla y León.
SEA AND MOUNTAIN
In Cocina Hermanos Torres, another of the restaurants awarded its third Michelin star this year, the chefs have devised a sea and mountain journey through the Spanish geography, introducing basic products on their menu that are repeated on all Spanish tables, such as truffled cheese or Iberian ham.
At your New Year’s Eve dinner, the appetizers will consist of crystal celery and cardamom, game broth with Armagnac, crispy Iberian bacon and truffle, Iberian ham with pickles and ginger and an oyster cocktail to start.
And to get down to business, a starter of peas from Maresme (Catalan region) with Iberian ham and shepherd’s crumbs, onion from Fuentes de Ebro, panot of cured cheese and truffles, followed by elvers in pil pil sauce with black garlic, wild turbot with mushrooms, roots, caviar and albufera sauce and canned royal quail rice with black olives and truffles.
To finish with a creamy truffled cheese with toasted hazelnut ice cream and winter leaves, a frozen cloud of burnt yolk, Christmas sweets and lucky grapes.
Thus, tri-star gastronomy celebrates Christmas and gives way to the last night of the year, remembering that the brilliance of the avant-garde of gastronomy is deeply rooted in the traditional culinary tradition and the best foods in Spain. EFE
