Aviva, when the kitchen sprouts
Perhaps it's shyness, or perhaps it's because, as the son of a cook, he lived through times and circumstances where the greatest reward of the profession was having customers return their plates licked clean; the fact is, Juanjo Carmona isn't driven by a thirst for fame.
Carmona's intention was to have a charcoal grill restaurant that would cater not only to meats, fish, and seafood, but also to vegetables and poultry. However, reality intervened, and the reality is that Juanjo Carmona had begun to demonstrate his talent and professional prominence at the Cávala restaurant, leaving the public wanting more when he left. Now, with his own project, supported in management by his wife, Remedios Antequera, and in the kitchen by Yuri Capano, another great chef with whom he has a perfect understanding, his passion for cooking flows from every pore.
Aviva is a down-to-earth concept, designed first and foremost to cultivate loyalty among local residents. It occupies a ground-floor commercial space in a lively residential area near the A-7 motorway. The restaurant, open to the outside with a bar serving the terrace and offering cocktails, champagne, and select snacks, shelters the interior dining room behind a screen of light wood shelving. It's a space of elegant simplicity and welcoming charm, decorated by Remedios with wooden elements, ceramics, and small vases of flowers on the tables. In front of the bar, where the charcoal grill and oven are located, a large, polished wooden oval table serves as the chef's table, a popular spot for foodies and fellow chefs alike to enjoy the dishes Carmona and Capano improvise with the freshest ingredients each day.
Cook of the breed
What takes other chefs months to develop—concept, plate architecture, and testing—comes effortlessly to Juanjo Carmona. He's neither a philosopher nor a storyteller, though he does end up telling his story: that of a 41-year-old countryman and family man who didn't train in a culinary school, but rather worked from the age of sixteen wherever his mother, Josefina Arana, could place him. He did his military service, moving from pizzerias and beach bars to the kitchens of luxury hotels on the Costa del Sol, stuck in the Escoffier era. Aware that times were changing, Josefina, humble but highly regarded in the Costa del Sol restaurant scene, arranged for him to work at places like Tragabuches and Mugaritz. That experience began to shine at the restaurant the family opened in Fuengirola, where Paco García, former director of El Lago, hired him to defend a Michelin star.
Juanjo handles the ingredients with authority, freely moving from the repertoire of classic French sauces to the heart of Andalusian tradition (gazpachos, escabeches, and dressings, as well as underutilized preparations in haute cuisine like cazuelas or ajillo), to offer elegant, often brilliant, delicious, balanced, and unpretentious dishes, with which he simply seeks to delight the customer. If the customer succumbs to the temptation to lick the plate clean, they will do so with a good sourdough bread kneaded by Carmona himself.
Dishes such as cold pistachio soup with confit tomato and lactic curd; almond mazamorra with apple, marinated snapper and escarole; scarlet prawn with pickles; pumpkin with pigeon mousse and caviar; rested pigeon with fried meatball from its thighs, mushroom béchamel and summer truffle, or turbot with beurre blanc and arugula oil, are some of those that may appear on any given day.
Carmona demonstrates that the fish course, often a mere formality on many gastronomic menus, can be a true celebration. A prime example is his garlic snapper with braised spinach, which earned him the national fish cooking championship at Madrid Fusión last January.
With the discerning clientele in mind, Carmona and his partners have leased the space next door to Aviva to create a private dining room in the medium term, while still maintaining their grill offerings. Those seeking quality ingredients will also find something to enjoy at Aviva. Sea snails, fresh fish, or white prawns gently grilled over embers, excellent cuts of beef, vegetables… To match the quality of the cuisine, the wine cellar needs to expand, although for now it offers pleasant surprises and a rare quality-to-price ratio for the area.
