You have to observe Paco Pérez and catch on the fly what he reveals among those gestures with which he tends to draw attention to the other: to the client, to the team, to the fisherman from Mar de Munt, to Montse Serra, the life partner and Room manager at the old inn that her ancestors founded. Be attentive when looking at the horizon from the window of the restaurant and hotel, the confession comes from the soul: “I like the Miramar. I like it a lot”.
Like all his kitchen team, which is now led by Julen RodrÃguez and his deputy, Richard Villard, Pérez wears a light blue shirt, like the sky of Llançà , where his name can be read next to that of Miramar. And above, the apron. Wearing the same outfit, through the glass that separates the kitchen from the living room, we see the bustle of boys and girls also dressed in the chefs’ tall hats. Paco Pérez says that he got tired of the classic jacket, which is hot. We read another message between the lines: naturalness is sought at the Miramar but creative haute cuisine is practised; surely one of the most interesting proposals around the sea, with the permission of Ãngel León from Cádiz and his Aponiente, whom Pérez loves and admires.
You also have to pay attention to what the La Mar de Munt menu has to offer and to its rhythms. At that subtle start with a glass of “water of life” (distilled seawater with algae oils, recalling the glass of cool water with which the traveler was received). A caress before the waves break in forcefully, extending from the shore across the tablecloth in the form of inlets, like a strong embrace of marine salinity. Seaweed, oysters and oyster dashi; a red mullet with its own cebiche (that fish called Iris, a nod to the children’s childhood); the starfish with crustacean jelly and osetra, flying fish and trout caviar; an interesting taco on a nasturtium leaf in which the scallop tartare contrasts with the exoticism of the lulo; the tuna niguiri with belly and loin with koji; the crab arrives in two textures: the light sponge and a chawanmushi (salty flan); panxuda shrimp tiradito, freeze-dried algae; the sea urchin served in a glass with grilled tomato dashi, sea urchin juice and sea urchins as is; next to it, a muffin and an “almost butter” that you wouldn’t get tired of spreading. The almost butter that they have been preparing for several seasons is a technique with which they achieve a creamy texture by interrupting the process before the fat and protein are separated.
Does anyone doubt that serious dishes can be served without giving up the diner’s smile? There are the “almejas y olé†with the mollusk in its juice, a sherry sauce and a delicate veil of citrus; like the “ethereal seaâ€, one of the most impressive preparations of this season. “Why do we always look at the flavor and not the weight of a preparation?”, the chef asks himself and answers himself by playing with all the saline intensity of the molluscs in contrast to the light texture on which they rest like on a mix the ingredients. The ethereal technique, which is for the first time, uses the freezing of air, which we will also see in the almond water with caviar, accompanied by another “almost butter†caviar.
The razor clams with codium oil is succulent like a seafood stew in which there is no shortage of seaweed, present throughout the menu and protagonists in the suggestive “sea of ​​seaweedâ€; exoticism and summer in the cloud of nori with fermented lemon, sisho, strawberries from the garden and espardenyes, with lemon miso. Oh, the sweet rice with an octopus mosaic! That tasty rice that should never be missing from Pérez’s menu (as in Quique Dacosta’s); squid textures with a six-day koji; the sea butterfly becomes a prawn… The garden in the carrot curry with prawns and a hint of carrot; tuna belly with sea water and garum before going to the forest with the morel pie or moving on to those desserts, bacon and cappuccino, presented in the dining room by the sweet chef Luana Minucci.
