This is the bet of the "new" Ricard Camarena
Five years. Five years where there has been room for the evolution of a unique language ( that speech so Ricard that knows how to connect the farmer with the diner , to the terroir with the avant-garde and to the diner with the most basic happiness), Michelin's ignoring, his treatise on broths and the display of a unique and recognizable cuisine anchored in memory and flavour. Always: the taste.
The post-avant-garde -if that exists- walks safely hand in hand with that handful of titans free of ties: Camarena, David Muñoz, Ángel León, Andoni Luis Aduriz, Josean Alija, the guys from Mejorar and Albert Adrià . And perhaps Ricard was the only one in need of a space equal to his kitchen. Well, he already has it.
Bombas Gens is the cultural center in the (working class) neighborhood of Marxalenes after which are José Luis Soler Vila and Vicente Todolí, former director of the Tate Modern in London. Both friends and clients of Camarena. But anyway, let's get down to business: the space of Ricard Camarena Restaurant It has been designed by Francesc Rifé and it grows up to almost a thousand meters and several spaces: bar, dining room, patio with garden, open kitchen and private.
An infinite ceiling and the conviction that, damn perceptions, the gastronomic experience is inextricably linked to factors other than what happens on the plate: sounds, tempo, space and design. Ricard has closed the circle and so he tells us.
Bombas Gens, is it somehow the end of a road (the gastronomic one)?
Yes. Many things have happened over the years, from 2004 to 2017 I have changed restaurants four times and I don't think I will do another gastronomic one for at least 15 years, this is the end point to my food tour.
And Michelin? Be sincere… Are you in the head in this transfer?
Like all years. But it was not part of the decision, in November 2014 (two years ago) we already knew that we were coming here. And look: I thought that when it opened I would already have the second, it would be a transfer with two stars.
Ricard's kitchen has not moved one iota from its last, glorious stage in Ruzafa: obstinate with vegetables and the Valencian garden , obsessed with balance, temporality, forcefulness, and conscientious work with sauces.
The magic of Ricard Camarena Restaurant
We ask again. First it was the work with funds, this year seems to be the time for sauces... why?
It has not been searched. I began to stop being interested in broths because I have them very dominated; Already interest me in the world of sauces : I never liked that they were traditionally used to cover the product and we have started to use it to enhance it.
What does change is the gastronomic experience, now divided into three parts : aperitifs at the bar, knots in the dining room and coffees in the garden —and the certainty that we are facing one of the great gastronomic restaurants in Spain.
IN DATA
RICARD CAMARENA RESTAURANT
Address: Av. de Burjassot, 54 - Bombas Gens Center d'Art, Valencia
Telephone: 963 35 54 18
Prices:
Ricard Camarena experience, 150 euros
Tasting, for 120 euros
Noon, for 55 euros.
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Ricard Camarena Restaurant