Click here to read the Spanish version.
Tapas Magazine has celebrated at the Real Fábrica de Tapices the second edition of the Best New Restaurant, a recognition that rewards the most significant opening of the last year. This 2023, it has been awarded to OSA, the new Madrid “house” of chefs Jorge Muñoz and Sara Peral, which presents a gastronomic proposal of haute cuisine that fuses Spanish products, French technique and Japanese sensibility.
During the ceremony presented by Flora González and sponsored by DS Automobiles, Font Vella and Vermut Lustau, Andrés Rodríguez, president of SpainMedia, and editor and director of FORBES and Tapas Magazine, expressed the great pleasure of enjoying the gastronomic experience proposed by OSA.
Below is his full speech:
First of all, I wanted to thank my friend Daniel Entrecanales for taking me to OSA for the first time. He is an unintentional part of this award.
“Madrid is living a second youth. Those of us who already have gray beards have known it that way, bubbly and with acne, already in the times of the movida. Back then you were nobody if you didn’t play in a rock band and had recorded a single. I myself, as I had no aptitude to be a musician, decided to produce and recorded the first album of Un Pingüino en Mi Ascensor”.
Today you are nobody if you don’t have a podcast or if you don’t show off by taking a selfie in the restaurants of the moment. Madrid is not only the coolest city in Europe but many say, exaggerating a bit, that it is the capital of the world. It’s a bit like what happened to Barcelona during the Olympics and as we have seen what happened afterwards many of us wonder how long it will last and how we will get out of it.
It is very difficult to explain what makes a restaurant great. Until the end of 1969 in Spain there were no food critics, it was in ABC. Until 1969 in this country of ours there was still concern in many places about being able to eat hot food twice a day.
It is very difficult to explain what you feel in a good restaurant. You can make a review, and rate the service, the wine cellar, the bread, the desserts, the table linen and even the cleanliness of the bathrooms, but to explain what the diner feels is more difficult.
Of course, everything has changed a lot. Gastronomic criticism did not appear in the newspaper but in the Sunday magazine because talking about restaurants was not serious. In Spain we have had great gastronomic critics who, with their wit and good food, have enhanced our culture. I would like to mention Néstor Lujan, Álvaro Cunqueiro, Victor de la Serna Sr., Manolo Vázquez Montalban or Jorge Victor Sueiro. For many they are distant names, but without them it would have been possible to edit TAPAS, and win the National Gastronomy Award in 2016.
Forgive my lack of humility, but it was us, from this publishing house, from Spainmedia, who were the pioneers in including gastronomy in lifestyle magazines. In 2006 when I founded Spainmedia there were magazines for women and magazines to teach women how to cook, magazines for men -always with a lot of sex on the cover- and magazines for gastronomes with a very small circulation… The readers were first gastronomes, then gourmets, then foodies, gastro influencers and now Food Content Creators. We call our community Foodies. We changed that.
In that remote galaxy, cooks were hidden in the back of the kitchens. The real protagonist was the head waiter – which is a profession that today I would like to vindicate – or the owner, who in most cases was the head waiter. TAPAS, which this year celebrates its eighth anniversary, is largely responsible for the fact that chefs are now rock stars. In the past, only sailors used to get tattoos, but now without tattoos you are not a modern chef. Jorge Muñoz and Sara Peral are rock stars. TAPAS has chosen OSA Best New Restaurant 2023, best opening of the year, but the truth is that with their tattoos instead of cooking they could act in the return of the Pegamoides as soon as Alaska meets them.
In that remote galaxy, restaurants understood their communication in a simple way. If you were a well-known journalist, or if you appeared in Semana or Diez Minutos, you were invited to eat. And that’s how the journalist always went. You remember the old Asador Donostiarra, always full of journalists and celebrities because they ate for free. We journalists have always been grateful stomachs. Today we are accompanied in the room by great communication agencies such as Ana Escobar, Concha Marcos, Eva Caballero, Rafa Ríos, Isabel Aires, Rodrigo Varona or Yolanda Sacristán and they all know well that there is no better way to “convince” a journalist than giving him/her a good meal or sending him/her a good bottle of wine, if it is Magnum, even better.
This is a young award. Just like us. Until last year TAPAS gave only two awards: the Chef of The Year that as you know has won Paco Morales for Noor, Daniel Humm for his Eleven Madison Park even with meat on the menu, Martin Berasategui, the Spaniard with more stars in history, Jose Andres long before winning the Prince of Asturias Award and appear on the cover of TIME magazine and Dominique Creen and this year we will celebrate the first of December with some variations. I assure you that this year’s winner will be the bomb, but that will be this fall.
And also the T de Oro, the award to the rockies of the year, one for each community. This is the second season that we decided to go for the Best New Restaurant and in both editions we have chosen Madrid. Last year the winner was Desde 1911 and I think we were right. Diego García has apologized for not being here because he had a travel commitment. Diego and the OSA team are very good friends. What Diego and his team do at 1911 is very different from what led us to award OSA. This year, OSA is undoubtedly the Best New Restaurant. And as I said before, it is difficult to describe what a diner feels when he puts himself in their hands, but we could summarize it in the dream of two enthusiasts: Jorge and Sara, supported by the skill of Fernando Cuenllas and the passion, experience and generosity of Alejandro Zubillaga. Do not miss it.
I want to thank entrepreneurs in the hotel and restaurant business who are here with us today as Toñi Escapa of La Ferretería, Li Bao promoter of China Crown perhaps the best Chinese in Madrid, Nicoletta Negrinni, Moises Chocrón and his Bogao, Jorge LLovet of Ramses, Emilio Souto from Abya, Martin Narvaez from Lana, Charlotte Finkel and Mario Sanchez from Comparte Bistro, Nacho Ventosa and Rosa Aznar who are doing great with Los 33, Sandro Silva, of course, watch out for what he prepares in La Gran Vía, Jesus Sánchez for his incredible Cenador de Amos, Juan Uribe from Healthy Poke,
Today we are going to toast a white wine, the Verdejo from Marqués de Riscal that many of you already know, and a red wine that I would like to bring to your attention, which belongs to one of the great winemaking families of Spain, the Pesquera winery. The wine is called MXI, which is made at 900 meters altitude in El Monte Altode Pesquera, with Tempranillo grapes. It is a project born in 2016 in the Fernandez Rivera family to incorporate the new generations new wines.
And I announce that this year, after 8 years editing TAPAS and 5 years editing the Restaurant Guide to Eat Spain, we will publish the Tapas Guide of the 500 wines you have to drink in 2023 as soon as the harvest is over. And we are doing it, choosing a sommelier for each of the 17 communities that will choose their favorite wines. We have here today very important people from the Spanish wine world, such as Carlos Moro from Matarromera, Jose Urtasun from Remirez de Genuza, Yolanda Garcia from Valduero, Pablo Alovar, the guy who knows the most about sake in Spain, Nuño Alonso from Lustau or Quim Vila from Vila Viniteca. I would also like to greet colleagues from the press such as Carlos Maribona, Federico Oldemburg or Tatiana Ferrandis.
Finally, and forgive me for being so long. I am going to try to explain OSA in my own way. And it has to do with that moment when Jorge comes to the table and shows you the black tongue of WAGIOU. I assure you that when you see this enormous tongue, SAN ISIDRO’s pulse stops and OSA, the bear who is in love with the Madroño de la puerta del sol, wants to get down from the statue and book a table. Do not delay, there are only 18 covers per service.
I would like to call Sara Peral, Jorge Muñoz, Fernando Cuenllas and Alejandro Zubillaga to the stage.
First of all, I wanted to thank my friend Daniel Entrecanales for taking me to OSA for the first time. He is an unintentional part of this award.
“Madrid is living a second youth. Those of us who already have gray beards have known it that way, bubbly and with acne, already in the times of the movida. Back then you were nobody if you didn’t play in a rock band and had recorded a single. I myself, as I had no aptitude to be a musician, decided to produce and recorded the first album of Un Pingüino en Mi Ascensor”.
Today you are nobody if you don’t have a podcast or if you don’t show off by taking a selfie in the restaurants of the moment. Madrid is not only the coolest city in Europe but many say, exaggerating a bit, that it is the capital of the world. It’s a bit like what happened to Barcelona during the Olympics and as we have seen what happened afterwards many of us wonder how long it will last and how we will get out of it.
It is very difficult to explain what makes a restaurant great. Until the end of 1969 in Spain there were no food critics, it was in ABC. Until 1969 in this country of ours there was still concern in many places about being able to eat hot food twice a day.
It is very difficult to explain what you feel in a good restaurant. You can make a review, and rate the service, the wine cellar, the bread, the desserts, the table linen and even the cleanliness of the bathrooms, but to explain what the diner feels is more difficult.
Of course, everything has changed a lot. Gastronomic criticism did not appear in the newspaper but in the Sunday magazine because talking about restaurants was not serious. In Spain we have had great gastronomic critics who, with their wit and good food, have enhanced our culture. I would like to mention Néstor Lujan, Álvaro Cunqueiro, Victor de la Serna Sr., Manolo Vázquez Montalban or Jorge Victor Sueiro. For many they are distant names, but without them it would have been possible to edit TAPAS, and win the National Gastronomy Award in 2016.
Forgive my lack of humility, but it was us, from this publishing house, from Spainmedia, who were the pioneers in including gastronomy in lifestyle magazines. In 2006 when I founded Spainmedia there were magazines for women and magazines to teach women how to cook, magazines for men -always with a lot of sex on the cover- and magazines for gastronomes with a very small circulation… The readers were first gastronomes, then gourmets, then foodies, gastro influencers and now Food Content Creators. We call our community Foodies. We changed that.
In that remote galaxy, cooks were hidden in the back of the kitchens. The real protagonist was the head waiter – which is a profession that today I would like to vindicate – or the owner, who in most cases was the head waiter. TAPAS, which this year celebrates its eighth anniversary, is largely responsible for the fact that chefs are now rock stars. In the past, only sailors used to get tattoos, but now without tattoos you are not a modern chef. Jorge Muñoz and Sara Peral are rock stars. TAPAS has chosen OSA Best New Restaurant 2023, best opening of the year, but the truth is that with their tattoos instead of cooking they could act in the return of the Pegamoides as soon as Alaska meets them.
In that remote galaxy, restaurants understood their communication in a simple way. If you were a well-known journalist, or if you appeared in Semana or Diez Minutos, you were invited to eat. And that’s how the journalist always went. You remember the old Asador Donostiarra, always full of journalists and celebrities because they ate for free. We journalists have always been grateful stomachs. Today we are accompanied in the room by great communication agencies such as Ana Escobar, Concha Marcos, Eva Caballero, Rafa Ríos, Isabel Aires, Rodrigo Varona or Yolanda Sacristán and they all know well that there is no better way to “convince” a journalist than giving him/her a good meal or sending him/her a good bottle of wine, if it is Magnum, even better.
This is a young award. Just like us. Until last year TAPAS gave only two awards: the Chef of The Year that as you know has won Paco Morales for Noor, Daniel Humm for his Eleven Madison Park even with meat on the menu, Martin Berasategui, the Spaniard with more stars in history, Jose Andres long before winning the Prince of Asturias Award and appear on the cover of TIME magazine and Dominique Creen and this year we will celebrate the first of December with some variations. I assure you that this year’s winner will be the bomb, but that will be this fall.
And also the T de Oro, the award to the rockies of the year, one for each community. This is the second season that we decided to go for the Best New Restaurant and in both editions we have chosen Madrid. Last year the winner was Desde 1911 and I think we were right. Diego García has apologized for not being here because he had a travel commitment. Diego and the OSA team are very good friends. What Diego and his team do at 1911 is very different from what led us to award OSA. This year, OSA is undoubtedly the Best New Restaurant. And as I said before, it is difficult to describe what a diner feels when he puts himself in their hands, but we could summarize it in the dream of two enthusiasts: Jorge and Sara, supported by the skill of Fernando Cuenllas and the passion, experience and generosity of Alejandro Zubillaga. Do not miss it.
I want to thank entrepreneurs in the hotel and restaurant business who are here with us today as Toñi Escapa of La Ferretería, Li Bao promoter of China Crown perhaps the best Chinese in Madrid, Nicoletta Negrinni, Moises Chocrón and his Bogao, Jorge LLovet of Ramses, Emilio Souto from Abya, Martin Narvaez from Lana, Charlotte Finkel and Mario Sanchez from Comparte Bistro, Nacho Ventosa and Rosa Aznar who are doing great with Los 33, Sandro Silva, of course, watch out for what he prepares in La Gran Vía, Jesus Sánchez for his incredible Cenador de Amos, Juan Uribe from Healthy Poke,
Today we are going to toast a white wine, the Verdejo from Marqués de Riscal that many of you already know, and a red wine that I would like to bring to your attention, which belongs to one of the great winemaking families of Spain, the Pesquera winery. The wine is called MXI, which is made at 900 meters altitude in El Monte Altode Pesquera, with Tempranillo grapes. It is a project born in 2016 in the Fernandez Rivera family to incorporate the new generations new wines.
Attention, academics
And I announce that this year, after 8 years editing TAPAS and 5 years editing the Restaurant Guide to Eat Spain, we will publish the Tapas Guide of the 500 wines you have to drink in 2023 as soon as the harvest is over. And we are doing it, choosing a sommelier for each of the 17 communities that will choose their favorite wines. We have here today very important people from the Spanish wine world, such as Carlos Moro from Matarromera, Jose Urtasun from Remirez de Genuza, Yolanda Garcia from Valduero, Pablo Alovar, the guy who knows the most about sake in Spain, Nuño Alonso from Lustau or Quim Vila from Vila Viniteca. I would also like to greet colleagues from the press such as Carlos Maribona, Federico Oldemburg or Tatiana Ferrandis.
Finally, and forgive me for being so long. I am going to try to explain OSA in my own way. And it has to do with that moment when Jorge comes to the table and shows you the black tongue of WAGIOU. I assure you that when you see this enormous tongue, SAN ISIDRO’s pulse stops and OSA, the bear who is in love with the Madroño de la puerta del sol, wants to get down from the statue and book a table. Do not delay, there are only 18 covers per service.
I would like to call Sara Peral, Jorge Muñoz and the rest of the OSA team to the stage.