The Renaissance of the Spanish avant-garde

Mateu Casañas, Oriol Castro & Eduard Xatruch
Disfrutar ★★, No. 3 / 50 Best 2022
Barcelona, Spain

Disfrutar roughly translates as “pleasure through enjoyment”. This is guaranteed with 30 or so dishes on the menu, which are all presented and prepared in an entertaining manner. Gazpacho as a sandwich, liquid salad, crispy egg yolk. The whole thing justifiably reminds us of the great times of El Bulli. The cooking trio were part of the senior creative team at Ferran Adrià for 15 years, continuing the tradition of so-called molecular cuisine and further developing this genre of the Spanish avant-garde. They pursue a bold, even daring style of cuisine that is put to diners in an entertaining, eccentric, and surreal manner. However, the focus is on striving for the ultimate taste, which is clearly located in the Mediterranean environment. The three decided to become business partners after the closure of El Bulli. In 2012 they opened their restaurant Compartir, and two years later Disfrutar. In the list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants, Disfrutar ranked No. 5 in 2021.
www.disfrutarbarcelona.com