What is happening in the Canary Islands in recent years, gastronomically speaking, it is not usual. From a panorama in which most of the haute cuisine offer was based on advice from peninsular chefs to restaurants installed in luxury hotels and resorts has passed, in not many years, to an offer also clearly focused on a local public and based increasingly on the talent of native cooks.
And although this is the case on all the islands - I am thinking of lilies either The risk (Lanzarote), Juan Carlos's Corner either kazan (Tenerife)– is surely in Gran Canaria where this dynamic has gained greater momentum.
The tightrope walker 33, what milk, The Pier, Goathorn… They are names that, each one from his personal approach, have been enriching the gastronomic panorama of a city that, beyond monuments, culture and product is today also a gastronomic destination which consolidates quickly.
Jonathan and Juan Carlos Padron.
It is not strange that the Padron Brothers , surely the chefs of Canarian origin with the greatest projection today, have wanted to be there. Because its cuisine with island roots , connoisseur of the product and of the local gastronomic tradition fits in with the city like a glove. And, inside her, she could not have a better accommodation than the mythical Hotel Santa Catalina.
It is here, in this historic space where visitors and Canarians shake hands, where Jonathan and Juan Carlos they found the perfect setting for their proposal, Poemas by Hermanos Padrón: a place with a Canarian soul and a spirit open to the world to which lovers of the good life arrive daily from any corner of the planet.
Last Tuesday, December 14, the great gastronomic event of the year took place, the gala MICHELIN Guide Spain & Portugal 2022 , held at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía (Valencia).
During the event, the new selection of MICHELIN Stars distributed in restaurants in both countries was unveiled and Poems by Hermanos Padrón got his first Michelin Star thus confirming that it has become, in less than two years, a benchmark in the capital of Gran Canaria.
This recognition also makes it the first establishment with this award in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria , reaffirming the boom in quality gastronomic offer that is taking place in the city.
Poemas by Hermanos Padrón is already a gastronomic essential on the island.
Is in that ground floor that opens onto the gardens through the terrace, where they found a space with the packaging of the big houses in which to propose a version of their cuisine that does not set limits and for which they trusted the young Iciar Perez Cejas , capable of understanding and assuming the spirit of the Padrón kitchen and making it their own through small gestures that further enrich the proposal.
Time seems to run at a different pace as soon as you walk through the door of the restaurant, because what you want here is forget the clock, relax and put yourself in the hands of Esteban García, a solid sommelier, with the elegance of someone who masters his trade, capable of wrapping up the kitchen proposal with one discovery after another, small jewels, in many cases from local producers, that he treasures in his cellar.
Already at the table, the kitchen of the Padrón Brothers occupies all the attention. It does not seek to dazzle with effects but he achieves it little by little, with each step and with the coherence of the menu as a whole; by the succession of bites that in many cases are born from a canary root , but they are capable of going a little further, of flying free reinventing that baggage to take it to new ground.
Poemas by Hermanos Padrón does not seek to dazzle with dramatic effects but rather achieves it little by little.
The red prawn and seaweed dumpling it explodes in the mouth with all the iodized elegance of the sea. The Gillardeau oyster with green curry, sea grape and salicornia goes along the same lines, although it takes the complexity a step further with its textures.
The menu starts with the bar very high, without complexes. The spinach with double spinach cream, praline and smoked trout roe they are, in that sense, kinder, although just as interesting.
Eel a la benedictine It brings us back to intensity: eel, foie hollandaise, quail egg, baby eels… It is not a shy dish. This line in which the great classic kitchen is reinvented continues with tuna a la bordelaise and with roast pigeon with cocoa , impeccable, millimetric cooking.
One of the essential gastronomic enclaves in the city.
Esteban clothes them with local wines. We stroll through the diversity of Canarian wines, through black lists, malvasías and vijariegos that make you want to keep browsing, for tiny productions, ancestral elaborations, recovered varieties that the restaurant is seeking to clothe its kitchen hand in hand with some of the great international wines , without complex.
Chocolate, caramel and mezcal; cucumber, yogurt and roses; chocolate, tangerine and yuzu. The desserts follow the same line as the savory section of the menu: friendly surprises, personality that does not try to impress for free. warmth.
Perhaps, after them, theirs is one last drink on that terrace, enjoying the sea breeze, which is right next door and sneaks in between dragon trees and palm trees.
Canarian soul and spirit open to the world.
Poems by Hermanos Padrón It is far from being a simple advice. It is a restaurant with all the solidity that is expected of a proposal that is obviously not satisfied and aspires to become one of the essential gastronomic enclaves in the city.
With little time left to travel, the restaurant is already a safe bet, a round and mature place thanks to the experience of his team; a space that has become essential to take a peek at the great moment of Canarian cuisine and that confirms Las Palmas as what it is in its own right: a destination that, thanks to its pantry, its climate, its crossroads of cultures and its culinary baggage, It has everything to be a key gastronomic reference that allows us to understand much of what will happen in the Spanish Cuisine in the next years.