Raúl Aleixandre, the Spartan of the kitchen
Raul is great. A child, a Spartan from the kitchen who has to fight on too many fronts: the past, Sento, history, the hysteria of the Stars and, especially, a world that he no longer understands -does not want to understand- what he eats.
I explain. ** Ca'Sento is the history of seafaring and buccaneer Valencia**, that Valencia that slides through the sewers of the City of Sciences and the sushi of the noses. That of the product, of the market and the blackboard scribbled with market dishes, of "it is what there is", of those days when you ate what the waves gave away , no more -no less- Sole? Come on, feel.
I'm talking about back then, when the fish smelled like the boards of the ship and there were no queue tickets at the fishmongers, when these were something alive, appetizing, that created in us the delusion that a few steps away from them is the dock, the warehouse of fishermen and the barges with beautiful names that remain in our memory as confusing and distant summer labels: "Bella Aurora", "La Lola"...
imagine to Raul Aleixandre , every morning, walking around the fish market in the port -I can't imagine it, I know- with my hands on the ice and the flag of honesty hoisted in the highest . In front of him, in the battle of Trafalgar that is today the hospitality industry, they already imagine what there is: fish farms, trendy restaurants, gastrobars, lounges and frozen flavors. Those restaurants with Ikea tables and prints of Audrey Hepburn -Warhol version- that crowd Carmen and Ruzafa, micromonades with the pretense of a Sunday supplement and fifth-range cuisine, foie gras with caramelized pear, cod with pil-pil sauce and other pre-prepared delicacies.
The problem is not the bars with menus for 12 bucks, the problem is the restaurants with designer menus and views of the sea -you understand me- that charge you 40 for a vulgar dinner. One of these days I'll name names, promise.
Chef Raúl Aleixandre in full creation
The temple of the product: Raul was National Gastronomy Award and he lives two hundred meters from the sea, from that sea that is our sea and on which the kitchen irremediably depends on him. There is no Ca'Sento without the salt or the waves that paint the beach. I can't imagine another restaurant so dependent on its origin, so naked, so fragile and, therefore, so strong.
"I didn't like to cook" he says remembering his childhood between Sento saucepans and the kitchen in the military. He has his grace, today Raúl draws landscapes and memories with two ingredients: product and haute cuisine . What a difficult balance. The restaurant offers a menu in which three types of recipes can be discovered: those that claim the best raw material, basically seafood, simple product recipes; traditional stews, such as rice dishes, fideuás or seafood casseroles and, finally, Raul's madness . The best thing, as always, is to jump into the void that is each of the two tasting menus, Ca´Sento it costs 110 euros and Midday 50, two menus that are two oaths to memory and the raw material . Always, always, always choose a tasting menu. Everything a cook has to say is said there, it is his testament.
The opera begins with an overture dressed in three appetizers, cherry gazpacho, cod fritter and San Filipo anchovy -the best there is- with escalivada juice. Then comes the Gillardeau Oyster with brunoise and apple granita paired with a Lorenz H. Kunz kabinett - this summer, trust me, German Rieslings - and before the red carpet, All i pebre eel .
The aria in an opera is a solo voice, in Ca'Sento the aria is a fresh hake with an overwhelming flavor, all purity and truth, so much so that I still feel it in my memory. And the end? the best thin noodle rossejat i have ever tasted husbanded -we travel lying in the arms of the sommelier Amanda- with a Pouilly-Fussé by Louis Latour. Rossejat, once again origin and respect for the flavors of the Mediterranean. Rossejat, humble dish of fishermen who prepared on board the fishing boats to take advantage of the fish that was not sold. Crazy.
He says a song that to the place where you have been happy you should not try to return. Step of the verse I will return to Ca´Sento.