Note: This article was originally published in 2017. Prices, opening hours and dates may have changed since.
The Academy of the 50 Best Restaurants in the World has awarded a team of three Spanish chefs, former El Bulli bosses, as new stars in culinary cooking heaven. Your restaurant Disfrutar in Barcelona is this year’s winner of the “Miele One to Watch” Award.
Winner of this year’s prize
In December 2014, the three, Mateu Casañas, Oriol Castro and Eduard Xatruch, opened the Disfrutar together. They had already met while working in the former Spanish number 1 restaurant El Bulli, where they worked with the legendary Spanish chef Ferran Adrià. On April 5th, the three in Melbourne will celebrate the coveted prize by the Academy of 50 World’s Best Restaurants. The Miele One to Watch award brings great and emerging restaurants from all over the world to the attention. This year, the Disfrutar has been awarded a restaurant that is not yet one of the 50 best in the world, but has the potential to join the list of top restaurants soon.
Photo: Joan Valera
Justification of the jury
The academy’s editor-in-chief, William Drew, explains: “The Disfrutar highlights the talent of the chef-chef trio and thus influences the culinary scene of Spain. Their will to push the limits of culinary creativity makes them worthy winners of this year’s Miele One to Watch Awards.
Photo: Francesc Guillamet
History of the kitchen trio
After the closure of the El Bulli in 2011, Casañas, Castro and Xatruch have the Compatir (Eng.: Share) in Cadaqués opened. Building on its success, two years later they open the doors of the Disfrutar (Eng.: enjoy) and, in 2016, received international recognition quickly through the award with a Michelin star.
Photo: Adri Goula
Style of Disfrutar
Right in the heart of Barcelona, in the Eixample district, the restaurant exudes a Mediterranean flair in a relaxed and cozy atmosphere. In the two open kitchens, you can already admire the chefs from the front door at their work before you come into the spacious and light-flooded guest room, which merges into an open terrace. The large room is decorated with ceramics in warm earth colors that take up the cultural heritage of Barcelona and take up the trio’s passion for art.
Photo: Adri Goula
Unique dishes
The menus in the Disfrutar not only show modernist principles of the kitchen, but at the same time present the own personality of the respective chef. Avant-garde, effective, innovative and surprising – every course, every creation is an unforgettable experience of the senses. A figurehead of the chefs, for example, are transparent macaroni made from gelatine, filled with truffles and garnished with bacon and parmesan. A certain whiskey tart also invites you to have a special experience: before savoring the tart, guests have to dip their hands in a glass of whiskey in order to be intoxicated by its aromas and to inhale the scent of the whiskey during the meal.
Photo: Francesc Guillamet
