The cuisine of Castilla y León is going through a moment of boiling point and, within it, Salamanca is perhaps the destination that has transformed its gastronomic offer the most in recent years. With barely 150,000 inhabitants, the city currently has three restaurants recognized with a Michelin star—four with soles in the Repsol Guide—and a few others that, in their respective ranges, deserve attention: Consentido, Ment, Víctor Gutiérrez, El Mesón by Gonzalo, The Alchemist, Tapas 3.0…
This proliferation of projects has given rise to a particularly interesting gastronomic ecosystem, with a local public willing to accept new proposals and increasingly accustomed to a solid and diverse offer.
This is a particularly dense panorama, but one that cannot be understood without taking into account the general context of Castilla y León, where pioneering names such as El Ermitaño, Cocinandos or Lera have not only been a driving force and a speaker, but, in many cases, cases have become a school from which this generation has emerged that little by little is shaping the current landscape.
This is the case of Rocío Parra and Alberto Rodríguez. She, trained in Madrid, has worked alongside Paco Roncero and Íñigo Lavado. He had gone through the Gijón Hospitality School, the Spanish Tasting School or the Parador de San Marcos in León. They met in Cocinandos, in the latter city, where Rocío worked for 10 years, and some time later they moved to Salamanca to launch En La Parra, her own project.
7 years of history, recognition with its first star and an ambitious renovation of the small initial space have given rise to the current restaurant, a round and cozy space, with an open kitchen, which Alberto and his team run in a close manner.
Rocío's cuisine, for its part, makes one think at first of the Cocinandos proposal, of that locally-rooted work updated without excesses, creative, but with the closest traditional cuisine always as a reference, seeking elegance without excesses, that updates, but does not mask.
The above does not mean that the En La Parra proposal is a transfer to Salamanca of an already known format. Rocío reveals her professional origins, but is able to add an additional layer, making it clear, from the first bite, that the diner is in Salamanca and that everything, throughout the menu, is born from that geographical location and his willingness to reformulate it. “Everyone has to find their line of work,” explains the cook. “And being here, with the tradition of Iberian pork and with the producers that we have nearby, it was natural for us to explore that route.”
That's how it is. The Iberian and the tapas of the city, two of its most recognizable icons, are the central axis of extensive menus—even the shortest one, made up of 19 courses—that explore the possibilities of that culinary landscape.
The paloma de ensaladilla, the traditional local tapa, begins the journey with the addition of diced pickled Iberian language. We are in Salamanca. Croquette, soft and milky, from Fisán Iberian ham with 4 years of curing; the farinato with egg proposed as a cream contained in a panipuri that is topped with roasted yolk cream. Iberian jowl and chive bao bread, stuffed loin tartare eclair and croissant powder, crispy potato and Iberian chorizo cream, Iberian cheek sandwich with peanuts and Thai dressing. The entire local pork, from the noblest cuts to the offal, subjected to a comprehensive review: from the slightly acidic pickles to travel seasonings; from respect for classic combinations to the brilliance of the product.
The ear stew with shrimp tartar and aioli from their heads, one of the tastiest moments of the tour, introduces a line that will appear again on the menu and that moves away from the strictest tradition: seafood that provides depth and an element of complexity to traditional stews.
Grilled Iberian pork neck gizzard, pure texture, simply accompanied by a pepper jam. The elegance of a humble cut that is not easy to find. Iberian bacon cured in the restaurant and served in an aguachile to which the Kamado roasted tomato adds depth, a certain sweetness, a point of smoke, umami...
Brioche with noisette butter, Dijonaise, Iberian pork cured in the restaurant and laminated—24 hours in salt and sugar, another 48 in flavored oil to obtain a product with an elegant, smooth, intense, but not excessive texture. A gem—topped with caviar.
Morro vs. Carabinero, a style exercise with a very interesting result: the carabinero, barely tempered, is served in a morros juice. These, for their part, battered in the traditional style of Salamanca bars, are served over a powerful carabineros juice. Each element, the nose and the seafood, separately, to enjoy without interference. Then, the room team proposes, they can get together to enjoy a charro sea and mountains.
The butter, made from sobrasada and topped by volcanic salt with sulfurous aromas, now arrives at the table, accompanied by La Tahona sourdough bread, as a break before the main courses. The anchovy, mussel and cashew garlic salad, with its acidity, prepares for the main courses. It is a new nod to the city's tapas, to the preserves and pickles of the classic bars: mussels, Santoña anchovy pâté, pickled anchovy, crispy potato, avocado dots that tie the whole thing together...
The acidity is maintained in the txangurro salpicón with codium seaweed and gazpacho cream and continues, more subdued, in the bonito dish, one of the last of the season, cured and accompanied by some pickled vegetables that maintain their texture. Morucha beef raviolo, another local gastronomic reference, with sweet potato cream and toasted pine nuts to finish the salty section.
A single dessert, a play of textures around chocolate that is nuanced with spices—cinnamon, cayenne, anise—and carob and in which an olive oil and salt cookie brings back memories of childhood snacks. And a new battery, in this case of petit fours, which arrive at the table in a large metal strainer, a new nod to the cook's last name and the importance of wine in the project.
The complex is comfortable, welcoming, interesting in that it is capable of reformulating local classics. The succession of initial bites, far from being a way to entertain and satiate, as sometimes happens, is a declaration of intentions, a statement of reasons: here we cook like this. And the whole is local and personal, current, but with a timeless foundation as a base.
Rocío and Alberto have shaped their restaurant into their own small universe with a strong sense of place. You are in Salamanca, there is no doubt; in the hands of a couple who claim the gustatory memory of the place and who seek to review it without excesses, without ever losing sight of the substrate on which they work, but without putting obstacles in their way. It is not a simple balance.
Salamanca is today a top-level gastronomic plaza. And that is an asset in favor of new gastronomic projects, but it also implies, at the same time, a certain difficulty in being seen, in order not to lose sight of the essence and to be able to give it its own patina; to attract and convince an audience that has to choose you among so many proposals. And En La Parra achieves it, becoming another pretext to return to a city to which you always have to return.
