Paco Pérez, between the avant-garde and lost flavors
Paco Pérez continues his enlightened nonconformity and unwavering commitment to the successive menus at his Miramar** (Llançà, Girona), which, to this day, are nothing but the sea, the open ocean, uncompromising Nemo-like flavors.
With a new business – the shop 'A mà (By Hand)' – just opened where the R&D department used to be, next to the kitchen, at the back of the restaurant, and with customer service through a window, Pérez is also able to take a trip down memory lane, with a bakery offering run by his daughter, Zaira, which includes artisan breads – the baguette is already sold out and it's only nine in the morning – fine pastries, cakes, cookies, jams, preserves, creams (cocoa, peanut…), garums… It is the other Paco, the one nostalgic for the aromas and flavors lost in the mists of childhood.
Miramar is at the other extreme, far removed from Proustian madeleines. Miramar is the grand Mediterranean fresco unveiled with relentless complexity. A non-speculative vision imbued with avant-garde flair in every bite.
The manifesto is laid bare in the initial 10 courses, a splendid display that offers, with each course—though everything is served at once, filling the entire table—a different marine element. Raw prawns with the essence of their heads and prawn garum. It's worth noting that the (house-made) garums and seaweed are the binding element in almost all the dishes.
The second wave is all about shells: a limpet sorbet with laurence pigment and a cockle mimetic filled with salt-cured scallop. Sea potato (sea fig) pulverized with lemon. The corals are freeze-dried seaweed with yuzu emulsion, salmon and tobiko roe, wasabi, and fleur-de-lis. Abalone in two parts: the interior, iced nitro shavings; the exterior, in ragù. The anchovies are presented sequentially: salted anchovy flan with its garum caramel and a fresh anchovy rose, also with its garum.
Tuna sashimi: loin tartare with wakame seaweed and tuna belly on top. Red mullet fermented in shio koji, coated in citrus and wrapped in a nasturtium leaf to form a taco. Finally, the seafood salad with spider crab, its emulsion, salmon roe and tobiko, seaweed, and yuzu and lime jelly.
A cabinet of naval powers at the table
With the bread already on the table (homemade, from 'A mà), the Brittany oyster arrives, warmed over embers, with a subtle huitlacoche hollandaise and a natural oyster cream with a touch of its garum. A brilliant recipe, accompanied by a Lustau palo cortado infused with truffle.
The gueridon appears to serve the tomato and prawns: freeze-dried tomato powder infused in herb water, seaweed jelly, prawns, and their frozen powder. Another marvel: the mussel membranes with their juice and garum. Quite a metaphor.
Clams with their sauce, tapioca, fermented lemon, palo cortado reduction, and codium spaghetti—a showcase of Paco's fierce technical and sensual skill. A caviar void (empty dome) of freeze-dried almond milk with caviar butter and a mound of Polish caviar.
Carabineros prawn curry with its coral, coconut, coriander, and a hint of chili. The sea cucumber blends Western and Eastern influences: the interior grilled, the exterior stewed in a rich, creamy sauce with a puffed-up skin. Sea cucumber and OCCO hazelnut sauces.
Blanched teardrop peas with pea miso and truffle and freeze-dried codium smiley bound with olive oil.
White asparagus sequence: crudité of the center with chilled almond shots and vacuum-sealed tip with almond cream, codium seaweed, and langoustine tartare. Baby octopus with onions and squid ink mimicry. Sea bass aged for three days, grilled with its pil-pil sauce and marine chlorophyll—perfection.
Mushroom mille-feuille (ceps and portobello) with pine cone honey and codium powder, an exquisite treat…
The final part of the menu, with the sea shimmering outside the windows, begins with a freeze-dried mousse of red shiso, floral notes, honey, and barbapapa. And then the desserts…
Seafood French toast (frozen seaweed foam) with green shiso ice cream, basil, and lime. A beautifully chromatic dish. Frozen ingot of coconut, almond, and fermented lemon. Chocolate tart with cacao meringue.
And we indulged in Toni Gata's hedonistic pairing because, on top of the restaurant, Paco has (deluxe) rooms and, moreover, his breakfast alone is worth the night.
