Fake smoked salmon canapés
“Almost all vegetarian and vegan restaurants are very simple. It is difficult to find one that presents the dishes well, that is more gourmet… and I am not even telling you that it is romantic!” Adrián Muser is one of those who complains, but he acts. Therefore, with the collaboration of Angela, Venezuelan Chef, has converted the garden of his house, Villa Can Pau, in Altea Hills, into an ephemeral open-air vegan restaurant in which jazz and opera singer Maiki Trump provides the music.
Adrián and Ángela, from Altea, are revolutionizing vegan haute cuisine in our country, in which we find more and more options (from hamburger restaurants to hotels, passing through cheese factories) but in which we still have way to go in the field of quality vegan gastronomy, of that to enjoy with a tablecloth and a set table.
“I love going out for lunch or dinner, but there came a point where I got tired of going to restaurants with my friends and the answer was always the same: I don't have anything vegan, but you can order a salad or grilled vegetables. I understand that it is difficult but in this life imagination is necessary”. And so He went from being a photographer at Interviú to a vegan chef, when he started cooking for friends or hosting New Year's Eve at his house.
Adrián is full of surprises: although he was going to be an agricultural engineer, His career in Argentina began as a police lieutenant, which he combined with being a Russian dance dancer at the Vostok Club in Berisso.
And how did he get here? Adrián tells us that the decision to create something like this was a mixture of factors, which happened little by little: on the one hand, the frustration of being a vegan and not enjoying eating out (he has been vegetarian for eight years, but before that he was a vegetarian for three) and, on the other, the desire that his and his couple had to act as hosts in their own home of something as special as the Vegan Nights of Dreams, as they have baptized these ephemeral dinners.
Martin Kent, who provides the artistic part (he is a renowned actor and mime), is in charge of organizing each event in detail, which It happens several nights a month... and that he hangs the complete poster as soon as it is published on social networks.
The entire project was conceived, like so many other things, in these months of crisis: before, Adrián worked for Jeso Sabor, a restaurant in Benidorm. “Jenny, the owner, she is a friend of mine and she was the one who encouraged me to create vegan Saturdays, which worked phenomenally. She is very traveler and very professional: she demanded so much from me that I began to discover dishes that I didn't even think she could make, like vegan tiramisu, that she uses coconut milk, dates, nuts or agave instead of honey; either the false octopus à feira, which are really Shiitake mushrooms, which I macerate with kombu seaweed -which, by the way, has the much-sought-after vitamin B12- so that they have the flavor of the sea, and I sprinkle them with oil, paprika and coarse salt”.
And these dishes are now part of their Vegan Nights of Dreams, along with others like the fake smoked salmon canapés, the textured soy burgers (he himself makes the bread with sweet potatoes or beets), the vegetable meat pie with potato, chocolate sauce and cayenne or the Chinese hot pot with mushrooms.
Each gastronomic dinner is a journey of flavors cooked by four hands with Ángela, whose star creation is the raw vegan courgette spaghetti with pesto and the spoon dishes: curries, asparagus and almond gazpacho, cold avocado and date cream with grated cocoa and cayenne or hot pear, cauliflower and shallot.
It is noted that she carries this in her blood, because her grandfather and her father were cooks, and that she is a great lover of Italian cuisine, since she studied in Bologna. That's why now she fuses Mediterranean cuisine with Asia (her husband has a family in the Philippines and they lived there for a while), “with those touches that drive the palate crazy”, which are perceived in creations such as their ravioli stuffed with pumpkin with truffle and lemongrass.
And she also makes vegan cheeses, that triumph at summer dinners. “I used to be a cheese freak but I have lactose intolerance so I had to look for an alternative. She took a course online and it was a failure. But I was lucky enough to find La Carleta, who makes and sells vegan cheeses, who taught me everything.” If you are lucky enough to try vegan mozzarella, you will always remember
Ángela, in addition to being a chef, runs the rural accommodation Surf House in Calpe, a house with capacity for 8 people, which she rents by rooms, and with vegan restaurant, of course, which works with prior reservation. In the pool area she serves fast food (hamburgers, falafel…) and it is the way, he tells us, to introduce the little ones in the house to veganism.
And precisely to arouse the curiosity of the not so young, at this moment in which It is becoming more and more difficult (and courageous) to organize something, they have created these necessary magical nights that have hundreds of followers... not only vegans.
Before we leave, we ask Adrian if this will continue, beyond a midsummer night's dream. “I would like to have my own restaurant but making every meal a show”. Where? "If I wanted, I could go to Madrid or Barcelona, but I wouldn't have what I have here, under the trees and facing the sea."
An ephemeral, open-air vegan restaurant
Address: Villa Can Pau (Altea Hills, Alicante) See map
Telephone: 622,897,709
Half price: €30 per person (drinks not included). For €10, don't miss the table of vegan "kesos".