Latest news with #Disfrutar
Hindustan Times
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
From Biryani to Black Salt—A Michelin star's culinary exploration in India
Celebrated Spanish chef Oriol Castro, one of the visionaries behind Disfrutar, the Michelin-starred Barcelona restaurant currently ranked #1 on the World's 50 Best Restaurants list (2024), recently visited India for the first time. Known globally for pushing the boundaries of modern gastronomy through bold creativity and precision, Chef Castro shared his reflections on Indian cuisine, culinary philosophy, and the power of passion in an exclusive interview. It's been wonderful—my first time in India, and I am very happy. We've been eating a lot! We tried biryani, which I absolutely loved—not just for the flavours but also the technique behind it. That really stood out to me, especially because Disfrutar is a highly technical restaurant. Cooking and then eating biryani—it was an immersive experience. Oriol joined Vir Sanghvi, Chairman, Culinary Culture for a special Culinary Conversation on at The Oberoi, New Delhi and hosted the first-ever superclass in India, showcasing their marquee dishes. I really enjoyed South Indian bread—appam, and of course, butter chicken. We visited many restaurants, and each had its own uniqueness. We went to Indian Accent, Bukhara - ITC Maurya, Inja, and Dhilli—all of them were wonderful in their own way. It's important to see the authentic side of a country when you travel. At Khari Baoli's spice market, I wanted to explore the seasonal ingredients and local culture. We bought some masala blends—they prepared one specially for us, explaining the uniqueness of each spice. I am yet to figure out on how we'll use it at Disfrutar, but it was an inspiring moment. Yes—black salt. I had heard about it before, but now I understand its complexity. It's very special, and I'm excited to work with it back home. Whenever we develop a new dish, we stay focused on the essence of the ingredient. Even with all the technical work we do, we never want to lose that. It's not just about technique—it's about preserving flavour and soul. Fusion should never become confusion. At Inja, the chef explained the dishes so well that the experience was clear and enjoyable. Sometimes, context is everything—when the concept is well explained, the dish speaks louder. Not just mine. Disfrutar is a collaborative effort between myself, Eduard Xatruch and Mateu Casañas. It's not about individual credit—the project is bigger than the person. That philosophy has shaped our work from the beginning. Of course—there's always pressure. Even yesterday, before a cooking demo, we felt it. But pressure is important—it means you care, and it pushes you to give your best. Being ranked number one means people expect a lot, and we embrace that. Passion. That's the one thing you truly need. If you have passion, everything else will follow. Everywhere. You can catch inspiration from anywhere—360 degrees around you. It's always a work in progress. Everything takes time. You don't achieve things overnight. It's about taking baby steps, being consistent, and never losing your passion. Chef Oriol Castro's journey through India may have been brief, but the flavours, colours, and ideas he encountered here have clearly left their mark. With an open mind and relentless creativity, he continues to remind us that the best food doesn't just surprise the palate—it tells a story.
The Age
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
Sydney fine-diner moves up in the World's 50 Best Restaurants longlist
In late May, Mindy Woods – owner-chef of Karkalla On Country near Byron Bay – received the World's 50 Best Restaurants Champions of Change Award. Woods, a Bundjalung woman, was the first Indigenous woman to appear on MasterChef Australia. She was named a Champion of Change for using her platform to blend cultures and empower the community, and cultivate a more inclusive food industry that supports minority voices. Meanwhile, Central Otago destination diner Amisfield became the first New Zealand restaurant to appear on the World's 50 Best list in its 23-year-history, scraping in at 99th. It is unlikely any other Australian venues will feature on the list, which last year crowned Barcelona's Disfrutar as the 'world's best restaurant'. (A four-hour tasting menu at Disfrutar costs around $500 before drinks and may feature a dish called 'Fear: The Prawn', where guests are asked to hunt through dry-ice vapour with bare hands to retrieve the shellfish.) The World's 50 Best Restaurants 2025 longlist
Sydney Morning Herald
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Sydney fine-diner moves up in the World's 50 Best Restaurants longlist
In late May, Mindy Woods – owner-chef of Karkalla On Country near Byron Bay – received the World's 50 Best Restaurants Champions of Change Award. Woods, a Bundjalung woman, was the first Indigenous woman to appear on MasterChef Australia. She was named a Champion of Change for using her platform to blend cultures and empower the community, and cultivate a more inclusive food industry that supports minority voices. Meanwhile, Central Otago destination diner Amisfield became the first New Zealand restaurant to appear on the World's 50 Best list in its 23-year-history, scraping in at 99th. It is unlikely any other Australian venues will feature on the list, which last year crowned Barcelona's Disfrutar as the 'world's best restaurant'. (A four-hour tasting menu at Disfrutar costs around $500 before drinks and may feature a dish called 'Fear: The Prawn', where guests are asked to hunt through dry-ice vapour with bare hands to retrieve the shellfish.) The World's 50 Best Restaurants 2025 longlist
The Hindu
4 days ago
- Lifestyle
- The Hindu
Disfrutar's Chef Oriol Castro Hosts First-Ever Superclass in India
In less than 24 hours of landing in Delhi, Chef Oriol Castro went on a spin around the city, experienced its markets, tasted local food and sat through half a dozen interviews. Yet, there was no trace of fatigue on his face. It could be because of his trademark energy, or because he was really excited to be in India — a place, he says, he has been waiting to come to forever. 'I am so happy to finally be here! I have always wanted to see this land of great history and immense gastronomical culture,' quips the cheerful chef, who was at The Oberoi New Delhi courtesy of global culinary exchange platform Culinary Culture and Don Julio tequila. Incidentally, Oriol was not in the city to cook a meal but to teach people how to cook some of his signature dishes from Disfrutar, the three Michelin star restaurant in Barcelona, currently regarded as the world's best restaurant. And why is he not cooking for us? We are compelled to ask. 'Our cooking needs certain ingredients, equipment, technique, and labour, all of which is only possible in our own kitchen, but we do many collaborations like this where we teach our recipes,' explains the chef whose restaurant is endorsed by the who's who and sees over a year long waitlist for reservations. Creating a legacy A protégé of the iconic El Bulli, a restaurant that reinvented Spanish cuisine and put it on the world map, Oriol along with his co-owners, Chef Eduard Xatruch and Chef Y Mateu Casañas, is known to have taken revolutionary culinary techniques (like foaming and spherification) from El Bulli to new heights at Disfrutar. While they offer a 28-course classic tasting menu — and a 30-course option called the Festival Menu — it was Bulli that had introduced the concept of elaborate tasting menus. 'In the beginning tasting menus meant serving only two-three starters. In the 90s we began changing that by adding more tapas and small plates. Slowly, we made it to 10 courses — which was an important turning point in the history of tasting menus and something that has caught on since. Some of these courses change for regular diners to ensure there is no dining fatigue.' The idea behind the large menu, he explains, is to showcase a variety of techniques, flavours and tastes. 'Creating a tasting menu, I feel, is like making music — just as the combination of many notes make a song, many little things come together to make an experience like this.' Sharing knowledge Like Bulli, that openly shared and published all its recipes, Disfrutar has been documenting all its recipes too. Their cookbooks (they publish one every three years) also come with scannable codes that take you to videos showcasing the methodology behind each recipe. When questioned on whether he feels sharing their recipes openly might be a self-sabotaging practice, Oriol shrugs. 'Life is about being generous and sharing your knowledge, so no problem at all! C'est la vie!' he grins. Taking the philosophy forward, the superclass at The Oberoi New Delhi, focussed on showcasing the complex methodology of some of the signature dishes at Disfrutar. Participants, which included India's top chefs like Avinash Martins, Varun Totlani, Kavan Kutappa, Manish Mehrotra, young culinary students and food enthusiasts, got to witness the making of recipes such as The Goose That Laid The Golden Eggs, a dish with a shimmering golden egg yolk that is in fact a spherified, intensely savoury crustacean bisque made with prawn heads; Calçotada 2023, a dish made with sweet onions called calçots that sprout across Catalonia every winter; and Pizza Truffle, a flourless cocoa pizza with truffle, among several others. Impression of Indian food It may have been his first visit to India, but the chef's knowledge of Indian food is remarkable, something he owes to the Indian restaurant in front of his home where he and his children love to regularly dine, and to Indian chefs that work with him in his kitchens. 'There are so many bright young Indian students across culinary schools in Spain. Even at Disfrutar we have many Indian chefs and we learn so much from them everyday.' Oriol, who visited a host of wet markets in Delhi, also equates Indian markets to Spanish mercados, 'with fresh greens, potatoes, tomatoes, and a large variety of seasonal vegetables and meats just like our markets.' Having grown up by the sea on freshly made home cooked food, his fondness for seasonality relates with that of India just like he correlates the complexity of our cooking techniques to that of Spanish cuisine. So where does he see India fitting in the culinary map? 'Indian food is waiting to be the next big thing. It has flavours, it has technique and it has this vast cultural history backing it,' he says, adding 'I truly feel it is the time for India to shine.'
Hindustan Times
5 days ago
- General
- Hindustan Times
The Taste by Vir Sanghvi: Why Indian chefs hide their recipes unlike Western chefs
What's the difference between traditional Indian chefs and top western chefs? I would imagine that there are many differences. But here is the big one: Secrecy. Sharing is not part of the Indian tradition when it comes to professional kitchens. Most great Indian chefs of a certain generation will never reveal their recipes. North Indian and Avadhi chefs are the best example. The most famous Avadhi chef of our times was the late Imtiaz Qureshi. Such was his influence in the decades he spent with ITC hotels that many, if not most, of the Avadhi dishes served at upmarket Indian restaurants (the biryani in particular) here and abroad follow Imtiaz's lead. They are rarely as tasty as Imtiaz's originals because not everyone has his talent. And, most crucially, very few chefs have the real Imtiaz recipes, just approximations or the censored versions he agreed to divulge. Imtiaz believed that secrecy is integral to how Avadhi chefs have always functioned. Very few of them will reveal the exact spice mixes they use. If a hotel asks an Avadhi chef to come in for a festival or a pop up for a few days, the chef will either insist on making his masalas on his own or will come to the kitchen with spice mixes he has prepared earlier. But why single out Avadhi chefs? This is an all India practice. Urbano Rego is the greatest Goan chef of his generation and in the years when he cooked at the Taj Holiday village many young chefs who went on to find fame later worked with him. But most of them, however much they venerate Rego, do not know all the secrets of his recipes. He would always leave one or two crucial details out! It's the same with many chefs in South Indian restaurants. I once shot a TV show at Muthu's, the famous fish head curry restaurant in Singapore's Little India. They proudly told me that a member of the family came in early every morning to mix the masalas because they did not pass on the recipes to the cooks. The tradition is that recipes are held within the family. This ensures employment for future generations and indeed Imtiaz's descendants still dominate the kitchens of Avadhi restaurants outside Lucknow. (Every other Avadhi chef who is not descended from Imtiaz has promptly added Qureshi to his name to give the impression that he has access to the family recipes.) Also Read | The Taste by Vir Sanghvi: How Indian restaurant Tresind Studio won Dubai's first three Michelin stars Obviously, in terms of the development of a cuisine, secrecy is not healthy, but I have some sympathy with chefs who treat recipes as family wealth. Business people create assets which they pass on to future generations. For traditional chefs, the recipes are their assets. Why should they give them away for free? I was thinking of our chefs and their secrecy when I attended a master class by Oriol Castro, chef-owner of Disfrutar, a Barcelona restaurant which is number one on the 50 Best list of the world's top restaurants and has three Michelin stars. Before Disfrutar, Oriol was head chef at El Bulli, the legendary restaurant that re-invented gastronomy. Along with Ferran and Albert Adria, he created many of the techniques that modern chefs now use regularly, often without being aware of their origins. Most great chefs are known for their imagination which allows them to create stunning dishes which they must train their kitchens to faultlessly recreate night after night. There is no modern tradition of recipe secrecy in the West so, if you want to know how, say, Massimo Bottura makes his iconic The Crunchy Part of the Lasagna you can easily find the recipe and Massimo himself will tell you how the dish is put together. If you watch a master class with the average three-star chef, while you will come away marvelling at the chef's genius and skills, you won't necessarily learn very much that you can't find on the net. With technique-based chefs, it's different. If you had worked in the El Bulli kitchen and seen Ferran and Oriol up close, you would have discovered how the new techniques El Bulli popularised should be applied and learned how to incorporate them in your own cooking. (The Adrias taught many of today's great chefs, among them Rene Redzepi of Noma and our very own Gaggan Anand.) When Oriol came to Delhi last week, he demonstrated how to make ten of Disfrutar's most famous dishes. They are great dishes, of course, but what is most significant about them is that they all use techniques that were either created or perfected in the Disfrutar kitchen. Any chef who watched them (and 23 of the Food Superstars list of India's 30 top chefs flew in for the opportunity to learn from Oriol) didn't just learn recipes. They learned about techniques that are still new and unfamiliar in professional kitchens. (The class was free.) The chefs were gobsmacked, of course, but I was intrigued. Why was Oriol giving away the secrets? Wasn't he worried that everyone could now make dishes that were once exclusive to Disfrutar? Short answer: No. He wanted people to learn. I have wondered about that. Perhaps Oriol's willing to share his secrets is part of a western tradition that goes back to centuries ago. The great Auguste Escoffier is best remembered for codifying French cuisine and creating the definitive recipes for every classic dish. He had no interest in secrecy. He wanted to spread knowledge. Similarly, when El Bulli and The Fat Duck revolutionised gastronomy two decades ago neither Ferran Adria or Heston Blumenthal had any interest in secrecy. They wanted to share what they had discovered. People eat triple cooked chips all the time now without caring that Blumenthal invented the technique. Chefs use liquid nitrogen routinely without knowing that it was first used in The Fat Duck's kitchen. Spherication has become a cliche and a new generation of chefs has no clue that it was first perfected at El Bulli. That I think is the biggest difference between how chefs function in the West and in India. They spread knowledge. We hoard it. Whose way is better? Well, on this one, I am on the side of the West.
