Cancook and its Aragonese geographical cuisine, with a Michelin star in Zaragoza
"Less is more," says Ramsés González, chef of Cancook in Zaragoza, a restaurant with one Michelin star and two Repsol Suns.
It's impossible to achieve a high level of customer service with a large volume of work, says Ramsés González. This philosophy explains the Michelin star and two Repsol Suns that the restaurant has earned.
The plan for the future is to remove one table from the dining room, leaving four, like a bespoke suit for each customer. Currently, there are five tables and three kitchens, an unusual ratio that seeks perfect harmony between the diner and the menu.
From the street, the restaurant looks like the unassuming entrance to an apartment building. A few steps down lead to the walk-in refrigerator, where the tasting menu ingredients are displayed. The three menus are the Grand Menu (€90), the Festival Menu (€120), and the Evolution Menu (€150). All include a wide variety of seasonal vegetables, most of them from their own garden.
“We have several gardeners who work for us,” Ramses explains as he shows off the R&D kitchen, where the team tests the 78 dishes the chef plans to offer each year. Consulting services for other clients are also designed from there, because four tables wouldn't be enough to sustain those resources with menu revenue alone.
Right next door is the wine cellar, boasting 670 different wines. There, the first bites are served: a cocktail with kombucha, hibiscus, and roses; a Pyrenees trout tartlet; and a mochi filled with sobrasada from La Fueva, one of Cancook's signature products. Guests also sample a homemade black lemon vermouth. Wine pairings range from 90 to 150 euros, and the sommelier tailors them to each client.
On the plate, the fish is always the best available at the market each week, with minimal processing. The meat focuses on cuts of Iberian pork: less prized parts, such as trotters, snout, and ear, are hidden in a stir-fry presented as a traditional stew, and the presa, a cut from the shoulder, is prepared like pastrami. It's refreshing to find such a different product when pigeon meat dominates so many fine-dining menus.
The desserts explore inventive cooking with leftover sourdough bread, grains, and cocoa. One pre-dessert uses the whey from the homemade butter at the Villa Villera cheese factory in Sieso (Huesca) to create a praline with sun-dried tomatoes. A dessert combining mushroom, chocolate, and tonka bean is presented as a classic Magnum ice cream.
The journey ends in Cuba, Ramsés González's homeland, with mango and coffee; coconut, tobacco, and rum; and kumquat, citrus, and mint. Aragonese cuisine with a broad vision.
