We warned about it when Enigma (Sepúlveda, 38) returned in June 2022 after two years of closure. Albert Adrià returned ready to “explore” paths to reformulate what we eat, how, when and where. Also to find a formula that would make the extremely expensive challenge of reactivating the business after such a long hiatus manageable. And then, we now know, trying unsuccessfully to transfer the restaurant with a lesson learned from the pandemic: “I did not want to continue being a slave to work.”
Pushed by the end of the ERTE and with the promise made to the family to return home at a reasonable hour, he tried to give the space a double use. At noon an offer à la carte or advised by the room team, something that had worked very well for him at Tickets, and in the afternoon a festive combination of cocktails with snacks and other bites as successful as his hamburgers. But that didn’t turn out to be as practical or as profitable as he expected, because the capacity for meals was much lower than in Tickets and because a large number of diners didn’t quite understand the format and asked for four little things.
Despite having confessed to being fed up with tasting menus, recovering that formula and betting on dinner (it also opens Friday at noon) says that it is what best suits him right now to find the balance between his creative restlessness and business. We find ourselves with an excited Adrià before the change, who puts himself in the shoes of the diner, avoiding the caloric excesses of that evening proposal that begins to be served early. We are facing an Enigma that has released its new operating system this week with a tasting menu that costs 220 euros with VAT included.
A tour to start with subtle and light elaborations, sometimes of a beauty and a fragility that requires a good hand to take them from the plate to the mouth; He returns satisfied with his origins and with a nod to El Bulli as at the beginning of the menu, with a direct ball prepared in front of the diner, or at the end, with a Bullinian bonbon accompanied by an endearing photo.
Avoid taking risks with products or combinations that are not suitable for all palates. Each bite is tasty and not only tailored to your digestion but also to your palate, curiosity and gluttony. We see more complex preparations and with more ingredients than before and a continuity in their commitment to seasonality. Everything seems simple and it is not, far from it, but the threads of a precise and subtle technique cannot be seen, as in the perfect sea and mountain rablê de hare with Cantabrian anchovy, the meat wrapped in a thin layer of bacon Iberian in turn covered by a sheet of obulato so that it does not disintegrate. It is a snack that is part of an extraordinary trilogy around the hare, which is completed by the tapioca dango and the kálix with hare consommé. The chef plans to include two trilogies on each menu, one with vegetables and the other with meat or fish, as well as a section with bites to eat with two fingers and another with Enigma classics.
Creations such as the lobster submerged in a layer of icy water and accompanied by its liquefied coral with lettuce or its new version of the pâté en crôute are examples of this balance between great creativity and subtlety. These days he is working on new combinations in which he already imagines an explosion of flavour, such as the one he will make with tomato, soy, Parmesan and orange. There are sea urchins, peas, broad beans, truffles… and those mentioned nods to El Bulli. Because right now? “If anyone can make them, we are Disfrutar and Enigma… The young diners were not at El Bulli and I am excited about the tribute.” He assures that he feels privileged to be surrounded by talent. In the kitchen, Rubén Zubiri, Albert Manso, Hugo Rángel and Alfredo Machado, his “wolves” or right-hand men together with Tristán Stewuard and the sommelier Patricia Lugo. As chefs, he has opted for the youth and honesty of Ángel Llorente and Diego Rodríguez. He affirms that he is clear about what I expect from Enigma: “I would like to have the rigor with the Etxebarri product, the creativity of Mugaritz and the magic of El Bulli. But I only have the magic of El Bulli”.
