Gourman: Ikaro

I remembered while I was eating that some people have told me that they do not find the cost of a top 50 Best or Michelin star restaurant justifiable. How I wish they were at the dinner he gave Ikaro during this week and will continue the next, in Quito. They would certainly have changed their minds. Firstly, because this couple of chefs, with a restaurant of a Michelin star in Logroño, Spain, they arranged these 13-course dinners, at $85 per person, an amount similar to what you might pay in many high-end restaurants in Guayaquil, excellent, but without the showmanship of Ikaro. It was also a generous menu in quantity, with an unusual service, the restaurant having brought half a dozen people from its service from Spain.

Ikaro could well be the acronym for the couple they make Iñaki Muría and Carolina Sánchez, the two chefs who run the place; Spanish the first, Cuencana the second. And so was the tasting menu, a mixture of the two worlds.

Some of their dishes were simple, but with a lot of technique, such as the black squid croquette in its ink or the roasted bell pepper ice cream. I like the latter so much that I try to make it at home regularly, so I asked for its recipe. I listened attentively and resigned instantly. There is a lot of technique behind.

The macambo ajoblanco was brilliant, very thin and pickled cucumber slices, smoked eel and toasted macambo. The macambo is a plant from the same family as cocoa, which produces seeds that resemble white chocolate. Pickled cucumber, a delicacy.

The king prawn with sea urchin, in a light soup flavored with coconut, fennel and crispy prawn legs was also one of the great dishes.

If the dinner had a common thread, it was the richness of the backgrounds and the sauces in most of the dishes.

Low temperature suckling pig was glorious. With smoked turnip purée, vanilla turnip ravioli and pine mushrooms. The flavor of the pork is given special treatment. Several days in brine.

The creamy dessert of dulce de leche, fantastic. There were at least five different flavors, orange, coffee, chocolate, yopol cookie and cream cheese, varying the flavor in each bite, with different textures.

Cooking at this level requires knowing perfectly the characteristics of the product and its behavior, as well as handling classic and avant-garde techniques to perfection. This is the only way to achieve combinations such as garlic soup with stewed fennel and chickpea salt or cream of foie gras with trout eggs and yolk.

Cuenca chef Carolina Sánchez will bring the culinary experience of her restaurant Ikaro, from Spain, to Ecuador

Until the sherbet It was a complex construction, of goat yogurt, apples, celery, cashews and vermouth.

Ikaro is a restaurant in the Basque Country, where Ecuadorian gastronomy is fused with Spanish. It would be excellent to have it in Ecuador. (OR)