El nervio creativo de Dabiz Muñoz

How does a chef who can mentally construct flavors manage to remain so brilliant and eloquent when composing his sophisticated tasting menu at DiverXO? Thanks to a combination of talents and a gift for work that perfectly complements his creativity.

There's something we often forget: Dabiz Muñoz, the super-media-savvy chef with a million and a half Instagram followers, is a truly great cook, not only in the avant-garde, but also a fantastic cook who knows how to cook and who won't be deterred by any challenge. Those who have followed him for a while surely know that Muñoz also has that special talent for combining ingredients, flavors, and nuances, sometimes Spanish, sometimes international, sometimes Asian, to create brilliant and truly delicious dishes. But he also has the ability to mentally construct flavors, because the mix of ingredients that no one else dares to experiment with transforms into a creative dish in his mind.

Few may possess such a combination of talents, which in the case of this Madrid native is complemented by an incredible knack for cooking, whatever he does: from something simple that he surely cooks daily at home for his children, to the most sophisticated dishes served within an incredibly complex tasting menu at DiverXO, passing through dishes designed for a delivery service and a fried chicken and burger food truck, GoXO, recipes to eat at an airport, Hungry Club, a relaxed haute cuisine model linked to doughs and dumplings like RavioXO or a bar like StreetXO that the chef says is street food when in reality he serves up hyper-creative dishes that in many countries would lead to a couple of Michelin stars.

Some might say this argument is well-known, and yes, that's certainly true. But that's not the most important thing; what's truly relevant and what works in Dabiz Muñoz's favor is his work ethic. That boundless capacity for work, effort, sacrifice, and stamina is a talent in itself, and even more so, it's an accomplice to his creativity, his creative drive, and his ability to handle the variety of styles he so effortlessly embraces as a chef. Without that gift for work, a gift that must be nurtured and cultivated, by the way, the most interesting thing is that he wouldn't be able to conceive, create, and perfect the incredible tasting menu he's currently offering at DiverXO.

A metaphor for Getaria, grilled and steamed red prawns, 'Bun cha kagoshima', couldn't that white prawn from Huelva in tempura be the cornerstone of a fried food concept with the 'Muñoz stamp'? , Peking duck as one of his latest obsessions, even more so now that he seems to have even found favor in China with his particular vision of the cuisine of that Asian country, or 'chinola', as the chef calls it, the duel between Iberian XO sauces 'vs' traditional Cantonese XO, Suquet-sudado with mirasol chili of octopus and red mullet… Not forgetting the liquid world, which is already another menu in itself. In short, the fun, the lightness, Muñoz's incorrigible personality as a creative being, and the constant flavor, subjected to multiple nuances and textures, and, most difficult of all, the lasting memory of the taste weeks after a meal at DiverXO.

Don't be fooled, it's not just creativity when we talk about the most sophisticated fine dining; the chefs who stand out the most over a more or less extensive career are always incredibly hard-working, with an uncanny capacity for titanic effort and without excuses. They are champions of that culture of hard work that is criticized today and almost considered a flaw, those who are too hardworking are annoying to those around them, and if they are annoying to those around them, they generate envy. They are titans in every sense, and, of course, an obvious titan is Dabiz Muñoz. Does being lazy and succeeding in haute cuisine with a solid career over the years seem like an impossible equation? If we think about it, who are the great chefs on the world stage who have truly stood out over the decades? Incredibly hardworking people prepared to change history, create something new, and do something different.

What's happening right now with the DiverXO tasting menu? Undoubtedly, something unique. Why? Because, after 20 years, yes, 20 years will have passed in 2027 since the opening of the first DiverXO in that tiny space on Francisco Medrano Street, very few chefs are able to maintain that level of creative energy for so long. How does Muñoz manage to remain so brilliant and eloquent when composing his dishes, his sophisticated tasting menu, at DiverXO two decades later?

Because there's something common and natural among many haute cuisine chefs: upon reaching a certain level of maturity and after accumulating successes, they choose to reinvent themselves or decide to rein in their creativity, even settling for what they have in order to, quite logically and fairly, earn the right to live off their past efforts. And something very different, and truly exceptional, is to continue innovating because without pushing themselves to the limit, the profession and life become duller; in this second group are only a few, like Dabiz Muñoz and Albert Adrià, who, fortunately, are incapable of abandoning who they are. Their creative drive simply won't allow it.

DiverXO will live on, it will endure, wherever it is and whatever it's called; and that emotional and sensitive type, whose every 'sneeze' on Instagram generates headlines, and who absolutely shines in person, will surely fight to protect and safeguard its creative spark. And that's a boon for Spanish and global gastronomy.

Photo source: MFG.