Stunning views from Iván Cerdeño's restaurant.
In each area of Madrid, dozens of restaurants open every month. Chamberí, Salamanca, La Latina... In addition, you have that list of places to repeat that many times makes you forget that there is life beyond. Because Madrid is not only its downtown districts, but everything that is located a short drive away and that is well worth an excursion. Are you coming? The (gastronomic) trip will be worth it.
**AMADÍA (THE BUSHES)**
The northwest of Madrid has launched a proposal this 2019: Amadía. The chosen place? You kill them. After coming across a sign that reads 'Welcome to fabulous Las Matas', just like the one in Las Vegas, but in smaller dimensions, we arrived at this district of Las Rozas, where chef Víctor Cuevas has settled. And, thanks to word of mouth, the project is working very well.
After passing through the kitchens of Paco Pérez's Enoteca, Paco Roncero's Casino Terrace (now Paco Roncero's restaurant), Urrechu, Hortensio or the Gran Hotel Inglés, this Madrid native has chosen three keys for his solo adventure: technique, product and hospitality in the room.
It works with a menu and three tasting menus based on its length, where the land and temporality are discussed, with dishes such as delicate artichokes with egg yolk and ham consommé, a veal tail cannelloni, Port reduction and cheese manchego or some essential sweetbreads glazed with celery, as well as its additions to the winter menu, such as creamy sea urchin rice or its foie with hazelnut sauce and dried apricots. His good work has earned him the nomination for Revelation Chef at the next Madrid Fusión 2020. We will continue to inform...
Veal rib with date puree in Amadía.
**MONTIA (SAN LORENZO OF EL ESCORIAL) **
The Sierra de Madrid has a star to follow, like the one followed by the Magi in search of the portal to Bethlehem. It's called Montia and this small redoubt is the project of Luís Moreno and Daniel Ochoa, creators of this restaurant that draws from its closest surroundings in San Lorenzo de El Escorial. And it is that ** Montia drinks from the tradition of the Sierra de Madrid, she gets her supplies from the artisan producers ** of the Sierra de Guadarrama itself and, with such background, makes cooking here in capital letters.
Dani and Luis They work with the season, pampering the product from the mountains, but interpreting it in a modern key. For example, the mushrooms that star in many of their autumn dishes – such as pickled chanterelles with sausage or egg, lace, anchovy broth and mushrooms – are collected by themselves, the meat comes from Colmenar Viejo and the vegetables and herbs come from from the surrounding mountains. In addition, his calluses are of impression, of those to repeat.
If you finish the meal with one of their Madrid cheese boards and you accompany it with its extensive proposal of natural, biodynamic and ecological wines, you will have an experience to remember.
**CHIRON (VALDEMORO) **
The Muñoz brothers, Iván in the kitchen and Raúl in the dining room and as sommelier, are the perfect tandem that gave life to Chirón, a restaurant in Valdemoro that practices highland cuisine. And with plateau we mean how they define the cuisine of Madrid, as a perfect conjunction between the Castilian pantry and the recipes that the people of Madrid have created and made their own from other latitudes of the country.
Thus, in Chirón they propose a trip through Madrid, or rather through the 'Vegas', but not of the game, but of the Tagus, Tajuña and Jarama rivers, which circulate through the territory of the Community. With its tasting menus Iván Muñoz appeals to the kitchen of memory, interpreted from a modern perspective and with allusions to La Mancha cuisine and that of other parts of the world.
This is the incredible Chirón tapas bar.
You can enjoy everything from its reinterpreted typical dishes, such as the soldiers from Pavia, the stewed turnip or the marinated rabbit pestiño with seaweed, shrimp and fresh herbs, to those that have the product from Madrid as the protagonist, always of quality and proximity, which is used in dishes such as its infallible black pudding yogurt, wild boar cannelloni with marrow and truffle, hare a la Royal or some autumn vegetables in green sauce. The experience ends with a route through the artisan cheeses of Madrid, which is presented in a table with explanations of each one.
One Friday a month, they serve their Taba stew from Madrid, which (derived from the rotten pot) has acquired its own entity with some that another curious point, such as the use of crayfish to give substance to the broth.
Love for local products is what they practice at the Chirón restaurant.
** DERZU BAR AND BAY TABERNA (BARAJAS) **
Barajas is not only where our beloved airport is. In fact, there are, in Alameda de Osuna, a couple of places, off the beaten track, where you can enjoy yourself around the table.
First it was Bahía Taberna, the first place of Daniel Vangoni, who with more than ten years behind him, has consolidated its reinvention of the traditional tavern as one of the essentials of the place. His Russian salad, sobrassada and squid pizza, octopus with chickpeas or oxtail ravioli with mashed cauliflower, already justify a visit.
In 2016, Derzu Bar opened its doors, the chef's second project together with Sergio Guijarro and just a few steps from the first. And since then have become masters of #KungFood, a term that they themselves have coined, defining and uniting their oriental cuisine (with hints of China, Japan or Thailand) with kung-fu, "which is used to speak of a skill acquired over time, with perseverance, discipline and effort ”, as they assure.
If you are into Asian cuisine, you have to have it on your radar. Patatas bravas with siracha, kimchi and pickled onion, black gyozas of baby squid and bacon or a bao of sausage, cucumber and hoisin, are fixed in their menu, which, pay attention, ranges from about 25 euros per person. Not to be missed.
Asian delicacies at Derzu Bar.
**JOSÉ HOUSE (ARANJUEZ) **
“With closed eyes, perceive through the senses that it is located in Aranjuez, where the smell is that of worked land, where the textures of the vegetables are perceived on the palate and touch; and when you open your eyes you can discover the colors of Aranjuez on the dishes”. With this evocation of the land, Casa José welcomes us, the restaurant led by chef Fernando del Cerro and his brother Armando.
And it is that there they work with proximity as the maximum reference. Land and local product that translate into tasty and resounding dishes, very inspired by the orchard of Aranjuez, like its fresh white beans with autumn vegetables, pickled mackerel with citrus salad or its roasted white veal brisket, with brava sauce and minced wild herbs.
Adjacent to the restaurant, in what used to be its famous and historic bar, they have opened Atelier, an informal space where the kitchen opens up to the world and travels, but without forgetting its Arancetan essence and the philosophy of this house, with dishes such as chanterelles with pak choi and egg, minestrone sam, quail in tomato sauce or baked sole on a tamarind background.
Beef tenderloin in black salt with date cream at Casa José.
** ELIA'S TAVERN (POZUELO DE ALARCÓN) **
Taking the car to eat one of the best meats in Spain is a good excuse, right? In Pozuelo de Alarcón we have one of the steakhouses with the greatest projection in the country, the Elia Tavern. Catalín Lupo, better known as Cata, came from his native Romania to Spain when he was only 25 years old. His professional career began acquiring expertise before the embers in El Torreón de Tordesillas. The next step led him to open his own restaurant, which, thanks to his exceptional work, has established itself as a benchmark for cooking with coals and grills.
If the mastery on the grill is so special, so is the product with which it is worked. Tasting is made with the best meats, from Galician beef and blond, to Wagyu, without forgetting Asturian or Angus breed pieces, which mature themselves in controlled chambers and which are presented in cuts such as ribeye, rib, sirloin, steak tartare or T-bone, among others. Meat lovers, this is your place.
Steak tartare at Elia's Tavern.
**IVAN CARDEÑO-CIGARRAL DEL ANGEL (TOLEDO)**
And you are going to allow us a bonus track. A restaurant that, although it is not in the province of Madrid, is well worth taking the car and doing the 50 minutes that separate it from the center of the capital. We are talking about Iván Cerdeño-Cigarral del Ángel.
At the beginning of 2019 the chef moved from his Carmen de Montesión to a new location, the Cigarral del Ángel, the oldest in all of Toledo and there he has done nothing but continue to grow and excite his guests.
The chef bets on his own language, in which he reinterprets the classic Castilian-La Mancha cuisine, with all the know-how that he accumulates behind him. Because here their roots and creativity are put on the table, the purest tradition and the most audacious avant-garde, terms that may be contradictory but here, united, find their reason for being.
If the star was lost when moving the restaurant, it was recovered in the 2020 edition of the guide, because unparalleled talent must continue to be rewarded. Autumn has brought recipes to Cigarral such as an infusion of cod, egg yolk and watercress with a cod fritter, espardeñas with ear and meats such as the roasted roe deer from the monteros de Toledo or the grilled veal gizzard and anchovy broth. In addition to the tasting menu passes, two game additions can be made, a pigeon and plum cake and a rabbit and snail cake. The trip will be worth it. Insured.
Any Iván Cerdeño dish deserves a visit to Toledo.