David Muñoz in DiverXo, three Michelin stars
What happened to David Muñoz? Why so much noise? Is his radicalism a thing of his kitchen or of his speech? Let's start at the beginning: DiverXo lifts the shutter in the Cuatro Caminos neighborhood 6 years ago, and quickly became a cult local among gourmets and revelers of the capital. Your keys: fusion cuisine without complexes and without ties —No common places, from a boy we only knew about his time in Viridiana and Hakkasan. Dishes such as Spanish Toltilla, its version of eels or charcoal-grilled skate with XO sauce are installed in Madrid's coquinera imagery, and that kid who sometimes looked through the oval of the door crouched waiting for his next prey: the world.
In 2009 things accelerated: DiverXo moved to Pensamiento Street, landed the first Michelin Star and David won the National Gastronomy Award. The pigs with wings arrive at the tables, the days grow (and grow) on the waiting list and that boy with the strange hair breaks out as a radical and non-conformist cook but also as a a preacher without duplicity: Muñoz speaks clearly —bordering on the irreverent so many times and his #nolimits speech opens some cracks in the gastronomic scene, so apparently happy, "But let's see, Jesus, how many people from the starry stars in Madrid do you think are happy about my third star? I say most don't. In haute cuisine it seems that everything is kisses, smiles and love, but it is not true . It's fictitious. All I do is say the things I think", he tells me.
David Munoz
The specialized press is divided in two before the phenomenon. On the one hand, lifestyle magazines surrender to this hurricane that gives away so many good headlines (and the crest on the cover, of course); on the other, the old guard looks askance at this gastronomic Prince of Salina ("change everything so that nothing changes") to begin with, the taboo subject we never talk about: paying the bill . "When I opened DiverXo I was surprised that there were journalists (I'm not going to say names) who got angry when I took their bill, and this shocked me. To this day (after 6 years being a Taliban) it doesn't happen to me anymore. And it is that if over the years you go to a restaurant as a gastronomic critic, they treat you especially well, you never pay, they call you to go -this happens- regardless of whether you are a good or bad critic, your predisposition to criticize that site does not exist It is a problem for both parties, the chef and the critic", he tells us.
AND CALLAO EXPLODED
At the end of 2012, StreetXo is installed on the ninth floor of El Corte Inglés and Madrid explodes: street food cocktail, Asian cuisine, fusion, take away, music, locurón and gastronomic pornography . In my opinion, it has been StreetXo (rather than its parent company) that has changed the habits of the foodie and has put Madrid on the map of the essential . Yes, 3 stars deserve a trip, but it is the stage in Callao where Rafa Ferreyra (pay close attention to his Spotify list) and Jonathan Setjo cook (and dance) relentlessly the person in charge -I insist- that beyond the sector and the press, the Madrid public support this kid without reservations. And the street is with him: "The support that DiverXo and I have had from people not directly related to gastronomy is amazing. Also from many second-tier professionals -publicly and privately, many front-liners (and much more from the third Star) many of them (my friends) admit to me that they would not show that support publicly," says Muñoz.
David Muñoz's crest
MEANWHILE, MADRID...
Meanwhile, after all this gastronomic noise, the controversy of the supposed politicization of the Michelin Guide originated (and skilfully sifted) by Jordi Cruz and the last one, the kicking of part of the gastronomic sector of the capital (critics, media and influencers) has arrived. ) for the collaboration of David Muñoz with the Community of Madrid, which is not so much a sponsorship as the support for the promotion of the image of the Community in certain actions such as the celebration of International Fairs.
This makes us wonder what happens in this city. Madrid welcomes one of the great talents of world gastronomy and, nevertheless, we are inventing controversies (headlines, that is) via the kid who has brought the third Star after twenty years of drought in the capital, which is said soon. Meanwhile, the tourist image of Madrid is collapsing, international tourism falls 10.7 percent in the last year and (true) controversies such as the thousand tons of garbage in the streets put in the showcase of what-not- cool to that Madrid that we love so much. Madrid is not in fashion. Madrid is not of interest to cosmopolitan tourists (Ryanair has canceled 11 of its routes, 31.5 percent fewer travelers). Barcelona does not have a three stars (true) but It ranks as the fourth city in Europe in overnight stays, only behind London, Paris and Rome . And it is—wait for it, the third most photographed city in the world.
GOD SAVE THE QUEEN: THE FUTURE PASSES THROUGH LONDON
Next stop: London. Yesterday (Sunday, February 9) David wasn't in the kitchen at StreetXo —I was, devouring a club sandwich, tataki, Pekinese dumpling and a calamari sandwich. Strange, because he is always there on Sundays and on Mondays (the closing days of his house in Pensamiento) he was in London, finalizing the opening of StreetXo London: 400 meters in the Mayfair area, a bar, two kitchens, cocktails, champagne, fire and #nolimits . Wonderful scenario of Lázaro Rosa-Violán behind which there are two million pounds of investment (a note: there are no more private investors in DiverXo Madrid. There are in StreetXo London: a group of 20 minority investors led by Ibérica Londres, the fund of Asturian investors, promoter of the idea and owner of the majority of the shares in this venture).
There is no need to be a seer: he is going to eat London. No limits, David? "I did not come to change the rules, I came to contribute new ones. A different model of understanding haute cuisine that did not exist before, we have invented a new model".
David Munoz: #nolimits