{"id":241582,"date":"2024-03-19T10:49:20","date_gmt":"2024-03-19T09:49:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tapasmagazine.es\/?p=241582"},"modified":"2024-03-19T11:12:45","modified_gmt":"2024-03-19T10:12:45","slug":"how-enigma-has-become-albert-adrias-rounded-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tapasmagazine.es\/en\/how-enigma-has-become-albert-adrias-rounded-project\/","title":{"rendered":"How Enigma has become Albert Adri\u00e0’s rounded project"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Click here<\/a> to read the Spanish version.<\/strong>
Barcelona’s gastronomic world is a vibrant mosaic of flavors, a reflection of the rich Catalan culture, which stands out for its top-notch position, placing it at the forefront of the international culinary vanguard. It is therefore not surprising that it tops the list of Spanish cities with the most Michelin-starred restaurants. In total, there are 43 stars distributed among 31 establishments. And one of the culinary temples that stands out for its creative and avant-garde haute cuisine is Enigma<\/a>, located in Barcelona’s Esquerra de L’Eixample, at 38 Sepulveda Street. At the helm is Albert Adri\u00e0 (L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, 1969), one of the most influential chefs in the world of creative, innovative and avant-garde gastronomy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last time I visited this establishment was the year of its reopening, in 2022. I remember a memorable gastronomic evening in which each dish was an exaltation of creativity, balance and flavors of his tasting menu. Two years later I meet again with the Catalan chef in his restaurant, a kind of singular labyrinth made of shadows and transparencies, with ceilings that seem suspended in the air, designed by RCR Arquitectes and Pau Llimona.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fotos: Valerii Piataiev.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With more than thirty years of talent and innovation, the youngest of the Adri\u00e0 brothers is one of the most authoritative voices in gastronomy that should always be listened to carefully. Friendly and transparent, he welcomes us before the dinner show in the workroom where he and his team cook everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His school was elBulli<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

From a very young age, Albert was fascinated by a profession that over time he has mastered to perfection and that has led him to become one of the great references of contemporary haute cuisine, although he explains that you don’t get to the top without effort, work and passion. But let’s go back to his beginnings. As everyone knows, the chef from L’Hospitalet began his working life at elBulli, at the age of 16, which was when he decided to drop out of school. “I told my parents that I wanted to try my hand at cooking, and since my brother (Ferran) needed cheap labor in his restaurant, I told him I wanted to try, and he hired me. I loved the life in Cala Montjoi, although the trade was not so much”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fotos: Valerii Piataiev.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After a two-year apprenticeship in the different items that make up the kitchen, his interest became more and more focused on pastry making. This affection for pastry-making prompted him, in 1997, to leave his brother to concentrate on writing his first book, Los postres de elBulli, which received the award for best pastry book at the Perigueux gastronomic fair. Coinciding with the appearance of the book, in 1998, she joined elBulli again, in the R&D area, where gastronomic creativity was put to the test and an attempt was made to break with convention. It was then that he really fell in love with the profession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inopia, its first store<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Albert knew that elBulli was going to close, and in 2006, together with his childhood friend Juan Mart\u00ednez, he opened his first business in Barcelona, Inopia Classic Bar, a quality traditional tapas gastrobar, which lasted until 2010. “In Inopia we were born and died of success,” he says. Since then, Albert has not stopped leading gastronomic projects, such as the creation of BCN 5.0, a partnership with Ferran Adri\u00e0 and the Iglesias brothers (Juan Carlos, Pedro and Borja) that brought together several restaurants under the name elBarri, but had to close due to Covid and other factors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fotos: Valerii Piataiev.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

During this time, the 41\u00ba cocktail bar was born, which evolved into the Tickets restaurant. Another of his projects, Heat Ibiza, a fusion of music, art and gastronomy, also had to close due to the pandemic, although his ventures outside Spain were spared the virus. We are talking about Cakes & Bubbles, in London; and in New York, Mercado Little Spain, of which he is a partner together with his brother Ferran and his great friend Jos\u00e9 Andr\u00e9s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enigma, his latest challenge<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Albert never stops reinventing himself, and the passion he feels for cooking led him to reopen Enigma Concept in June 2022, in the same place it was (he also had to close it during the pandemic). “Since I own the place, I waited until the ERTES were over and reopened it. At first reluctantly, because I didn’t feel like it, neither the team nor I, because we are completely rusty,” he confesses. I have not stopped working all my life, I took more than 80 planes a year, I left my health. Now I feel that life has given me a second chance and I’ve decided to put on my jacket seriously to get my pulse back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fotos: Valerii Piataiev.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In this journey of freshness and freedom, his main objective is to focus on the restaurant, he does not travel to congresses or fairs, he says no to everything, except for the commitments he had already made, such as an ice cream parlor that will open at the end of May in Las Ramblas in Barcelona. This verb, Albert, has been able to combine it perfectly with a real commitment to his team of 55 people, although only seven are of his utmost confidence or, as he defines them, “the wolves”, his right hands. “I am surrounded by young talent and I feel obliged to do something for this very special team, who have always been with me, in sweet and not so sweet moments, and I could not pay them what they deserved; now I can, since we have a full restaurant and this has given me great economic stability”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this new venture (it has gone through at least three stages since its birth) little remains of the previous Enigma, which was open morning, noon and night. “We saw that this model worked. The problem was that at noon people came in shorts and sneakers, and they didn’t spend on wine, since the wines are open at night, but it was wearing us out. So I told the guys that the decision was theirs. And their response was: go ahead. Now we have found an ideal formula, much faster, so that our customers can live a different gastronomic experience from 7:30 p.m.”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A seasonal and monthly changing menu<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Enigma’s gastronomic proposal (37\/42 diners) is concentrated in a single 25-step tasting menu that changes every month (220 euros; with wine pairing, 300-350 euros) and in which seasonal ingredients of the highest quality prevail. A quality that our protagonist looks for and finds when he goes shopping every day at La Boqueria market, so that each Enigma dish breathes a DNA of its own that translates into morsels of great delicacy. In our current menu,” Albert points out, “we are trying to break with the structure we have always had of finger food, then tapas and then dishes, because we want to alternate finger food with dishes and tapas”. This concept includes creations such as dehydrated yuba with calf and squid broth; or their new version of a lettuce soup with raifort sour cream, turbot roe with spices and pistachio cream with avocado.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fotos: Valerii Piataiev.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“It’s of a complexity we didn’t have before. The lobster dipped in a layer of liquefied water with lettuce, or the new version of p\u00e2t\u00e9 en cro\u00fbte.” A very intense touch comes with the hare sequence articulated in three dishes: Hare and crab, hare rib and foie and hare, an example of this balance, creativity and subtlety. Now they have put a reflection or a game between Japanese rice and a Spanish one, which is a Japanese nigiri rice with a broth of cuttlefish. They also alternate psychedelic dishes with dishes like the m\u00fargula and this rice that 99% of the population will like; on the other hand, with the yuba or the lettuce soup, you have to look for a little more surprise. In the desserts put the minimum of sugar, highlighting an iced rose meringue with cocoa mucilage. In addition to an exquisite variety of vegan cheeses, which completes an almond smoked ricotta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fotos: Valerii Piataiev.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

An excellent winery<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Enigma’s philosophy is that wine, especially sparkling wine, goes hand in hand with the gastronomic offer and breathes the same DNA. Albert. Albert reveals that his menu is mainly for pairing with sparkling wines, because it is very light, very direct. In this concept the sommelier, Frederic Oliva, who is always attentive to any suggestion from customers to advise the best reference to pair with the menu, has a lot to do with this concept.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A post shared by Enigma Albert Adri\u00e0 (@enigma_albertadria)<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>