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The endlessly creative chef carries the mantle for Spanish avant-garde cooking in his restaurant located in Dénia, between Valencia and Murcia on Spain’s eastern coast. A scion of the elBulli movement, Dacosta is an exponent of the pure creativity of the molecular cookery that made elBulli the most famous restaurant in the world.
One of is iconic dishes is his Almond Nougat that is drawn from the movements of nature around him.
“It is a dish created from a specific moment of nature itself,” explains Dacosta. “It is the moment in which the almond blossom falls to give way to the fruit: the Marcona almond.”
The petals of the almond flower fall to the ground, thus signalling the moment of fruition for the tree, where the almond will then present. The Turroneros is the Spanish sweet
“Our goal when creating this dish was to represent this moment, maintaining the commitment to the cultivation of almonds, looking for the deseasonalisation of a preparation such as nougat, and reinforcing our commitment to the turroneros.”
The turronero is one skilled in the art of making turron, the Spanish nougat, sweetened with honey and eaten traditionally around Christmas time.
“At the same time, it is impossible to include nougat in savoury cooking because of its fragility. Regarding the Mediterranean, we claimed the duck shrimp, just as we reclaimed the Dénia red shrimp, a little-known ingredient of great value to me that recalls the Lonja de Dénia.”
An unexpected combination of ingredients, combined in an exact way that leans on scientific techniques to realise artistic expression, capturing the essence of Dénia.
