Not everything is pure and hard competition in haute cuisine, there are also discreet, humble cooks and complicity. It was demonstrated last night by Oriol Castro and Eduard Xatruch, creators together with Mateu Casañas of Barcelona’s Disfrutar, who shortly before learning that their restaurant would be proclaimed the second best in the world (and the first best in Europe) had arrived in Valencia, the city that hosted the annual ceremony of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, with the aspiration of being in a good position.
His mood was also felt in one of the most tense moments of the gala, those seconds in which the number 1 was disputed with the Peruvian Central. They did not manage to lead the most relevant ranking of gastronomy this year, but when Virgilio Martínez and Pía León went up on stage to collect their new award, Oriol Castro and Eduard Xatruch were waiting for them to give them a very heartfelt hug. And it is that, between Central and Disfrutar, there has always been a great complicity that has even led them to cook together: once in Peru, at 3,800 meters above sea level and at the foot of the Inca ruins of Moray where Martínez and León have the Mil restaurant, and twice in Barcelona.
This morning the creators of Disfrutar also recognized that they would not have felt comfortable being the first this year, since recognition of Central’s work was essential as well as recognition of Latin America, which for the first time hosts the best restaurant in the world in its womb .
Known internationally for their creativity and their constant need for innovation -some of their techniques and preparations set the pace in avant-garde haute cuisine and will soon be applied in restaurants around the world-, Oriol Castro and Eduard Xatruch also stated yesterday that having won second place on the list is something positive for Barcelona, ??for Catalonia and for Spain. Missed the gala of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants Mateu Casañas, since these three ex-bullinianos were always clear that, before awards and recognitions, their restaurants are above all else, so they rarely leave a service at the same time to go pick up an award.
This trio of aces, who met at El Bulli under the orders of Ferran Adrià, opened Disfrutar in 2014, three years after the closure of the acclaimed restaurant in Cala Montjoi where both Castro, Xatruch and Casañas were head chefs. Since then their projection has been unstoppable: in 2015 they obtained their first Michelin star, in 2017 they broke into number 55 on the extended list of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, obtaining the On the watch award, and that same year the Red Guide also awarded them its second shine.
Last year they opened the restaurant Compartir in Barcelona, ??the sister of the eponymous restaurant that they opened in 2012 in Cadaqués, which was their first business together. In this case, chef Nil Dulcet was added to the project as a partner, who was his disciple and head chef at Disfrutar for years. Located just 10 minutes from its mother house (at number 225 Valencia street), Compartir’s proposal is much more affordable than Disfrutar’s, where they offer two tasting menus -the ‘Clàssic’ and the ‘Festival’, which is why they affirm that they have had an excellent reception among the people of Barcelona.
During the awards ceremony of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, Disfrutar was not the only Spanish restaurant that achieved a position at the top of the list. Diverxo also did it (who has just entered the podium, number 3) and among the top 5 is also Asador Etxebarri, by chef Bittor Arginzoniz in Axpe (Vizcaya), now number 4. Quique Dacosta in Denia completes the list (Alicante, now 20); Elkano, by Aitor Arregi in Guetaria (Gipuzkoa), number 22, and Mugaritz, by Andoni Luis Aduriz in Errenteria (Gipuzkoa), 31.
