East sushi restaurant , even being (almost) a secret, began to make noise in full confinement. In those moments of total confinement in which we all throw ourselves into the kitchen to prepare the unthinkable. The more complicated, the better. But we had a limit, and when the weekends came around we longed for someone else to do us the favor of putting food on the table. It was then that the hoteliers , one of the unions that is suffering the most from the consequences of the economic crisis caused by the pandemic, began to devise ways to get ahead. They did it quickly and without losing their ingenuity and creativity along the way. One of them was Ebisu by Kobos.
His story begins with a journey by chef Kobos to Japan . “I went to work in a couple of Spanish restaurants as a cultural exchange, it was a fantastic experience and I wanted to come back to learn everything about Japanese cuisine. Everything that I saw and tried and that I could not investigate when I was working”, the chef from Madrid tells Traveler.es.
“I left without a job, sold my car and went on an adventure,” he continues. Already at the destination, he contacted the owner of the Ebisu restaurant , one of the places I had heard best from friends and acquaintances. "I went to dinner and I fell in love with everything they did," he recalls. Without thinking twice, he asked if he could lend them a hand in the kitchen. “A month, they hire me, working seven days a week and sleeping two hours a day. I was like this for almost a year.” Upon his return to Madrid, the pandemic made it impossible for him to put what he had learned into practice.
“After being cooped up at home for two months the walls were falling in on me, so I decided to call Xavier Greetings , my now partner, to start a delivery service”, he explains. One that worked more than well and that when the restrictions were finally lifted, it was installed in the basement of the Matritum wine bar, in the middle of Cava Alta street and with more than 25 years in Madrid.
“In less than a month since we launched the home delivery service, people were already asking me when I was going to open a restaurant. That's when I start doing the omakase table that currently constitutes the offer of Ebisu by Kobos ”, explains the chef. “It has been a project and a process that was born in the pandemic and that has been adapting to it,” says the chef whose menu It is an extensive tasting made up of preparations chosen by the chef.
“For the most part, what we serve is the nigiris . The tuna is always present and in the best possible way, which is in sushi and raw. At least two or three dishes that I serve have this fish”, details Kobos. at your table only fit six people , so only when reservations arrive to cover these chairs does the restaurant open, located in the lower part of the Matritum wine cellar. "Even so, my specialty is eel . What I serve I bring of the Ebro Delta , from the Roset brand, which arrive alive and are prepared here in the traditional Japanese way. It is a technique little seen in Spain and that we are not used to seeing ”, He comments of a process that would be “the marine equivalent of plucking a chicken”.
The menu consists of approximately 17 or 18 passes at a price of €150 with pairing included. The wines are usually those of the house in which Ebisu stays (with more than 400 references): still and with the appearance of some sparkling or generous.
"My concept of cooking is very purist. I don't do any fusion , the closest thing to it is the space in which I serve my food – in which sometimes a flamenco guitar is played live – and that I pair it with wines", explains Kobos. "I think that Ebisu is a concept that as I propose does not exist . The gastronomic culture of Japan in Spain is not great and what is eaten there, what is what I cook here, has nothing to do with what people are used to he continues. The proof is in the praises that are read by Instagram and Twitter of some of the most demanding gastronomes.
A fact that is validated with pieces such as its nigiris of eel, squid, crab, swordfish, clam or black horse mackerel with spring onion and ginger; as well as fatty tuna temaki (bull) with pickled turnip. A monkfish liver, egg omelette, fermented soybean gunkan and quail egg, pickled mackerel or shrimp futomaki, eel and caramelized shiitake. "I never put Salmon because there is an overexploitation due to massive fishing. Instead, I serve a wonderful horse mackerel, tuna, scallop or an uramaki with a piece of shrimp inside", explains Kobos. Everything as purist as possible. "You have to keep in mind that a nigiri is like a canapé in which you put an excellent slice of Iberian ham , something you would never think of putting mayonnaise or salsa brava on," adds the chef. "Nigiri in Japan is something elegant, so at Kobos there is no room to spoil such a good product."