What is happening in Logroño in recent years, in gastronomic terms, is surprising: Kiro Sushi, Ikaro, Ajonegro, La Cocina de Ramón, Tastavin, Sabores, Tondeluna, Kabanova, La Galería... An unusual panorama for a city medium-sized, with just over 150,000 inhabitants, which is even more enriched if we consider its immediate surroundings, in which names such as Venta Moncalvillo or the Alameda restaurant appear, essential for understanding contemporary Rioja cuisine.
All this creates a particularly rich gastronomic ecosystem, in which some projects feed off each other in some way and in which a demanding but also curious public appears, essential to keep these dynamics going.
It is there that the project of Juan Carlos Ferrando and Zuriñe Ortiz must be understood, a place that adds to this phenomenon, but that does so from its own keys, from a certain difference that shapes its own small universe in which influences converge. diverse.
The restaurant is located on María Teresa Gil de Gárate street, one of the hot spots of this gastronomic explosion, as if claiming its role in this current, but it does so in a discreet way, behind a brick façade that seems to mark a limit: the restaurant is one more piece of what is happening out there, but behind closed doors it has been creating its particular microcosm.
Juan Carlos arrived in Spain 22 years ago. To his classical cooking background, learned in Buenos Aires, he gradually added experience at Casa Massip (Ezcaray), Martín Berasategui, the Alameda de Hondarribia restaurant, La Broche or the Hotel Viura. His wife, 50% of the project and visible face of it in the room, is from Vitoria.
Argentina, the academic bases, La Rioja, Basque Country. Everything comes together in this corner of Logroño to give shape to that personal, different proposal, which seeks to be from the moment the client enters the premises, that place behind an inconspicuous door in which the comfort of a room is combined classic with also eclectic decorative details: a mural by an artisan potter, colored tiles and details that seek to break the possible rigidity of the atmosphere.
Something similar happens with the gastronomic proposal. Three menus (a market menu, available from Tuesday to Friday, and two tasting menus) and a menu that cover this particular universe. The longest Crossroads menu covers the season, the end of spring, through asparagus, the last artichokes or bluefin tuna.
With the snacks, an Argentine wink, one of those vectors that converge in the kitchen of this place. A chicken empanada accompanied by an onion salad. Oil and bread from three fermentations -La Rioja-, butter -France always present- and a crunchy quinoa with pigeon pate that adds an eclectic note.
Red tuna cured in salt and lightly smoked, cut as in sashimi and served with capers, black tomato and grain mustard, which provide the contrast of acidity and texture. Pan-fried asparagus, hazelnut praline and chicken juice. Zuriñe offers a Maruja pasty manzanilla, which accompanies the asparagus and provides a certain sensation of smoothness that is combined with the praline.
Charcoal-smoked eggplant, Iberian bacon, pickled quail, watercress. Another vegetable-based dish, the dominant tonic in this first part of the menu, with marked acidity and a bitter, almost spicy nuance, contributed by the watercress. Very tasty. Artichoke from Mendavia sautéed with thyme, potato parmentier, cured sardines and demiglace. Once again the funds, as was the case with the asparagus, acting as a common thread. The iodized counterpoint of the sardine is very interesting. What a great dish.
Trofie Pastificcio dei Campi with lemon and red shrimp. Simplicity and product. How unusual it is to find pasta on Spanish tasting menus and how many possibilities it opens up. I wonder why it happens and I tend to see ignorance as the main reason. Perhaps for this reason the chef's Argentine origin, much more exposed to Italian influences than most of those who are educated in Spain, allows him to be encouraged, without prejudice, not only to propose pasta as one of the main dishes but also to keep it within an essential approach, not to turn it into a garnish and to claim its quality by bringing the name of the producer to the forefront, as is usually done with more noble products.
The impeccable pasta, the prawns barely tempered, slightly sweet; the Parmigiano as a link and the citric acidity in the background become one of the great memories of this meal.
We finish the salty section with a Vendée pigeon of an academic cut, matured and perfectly cooked, served on its juice. Funds again. And a less is more than is appreciated. Good product, well treated. No more is needed.
Apricot and goat cheese ice cream from Cameros, once again the local in a pre-dessert that combines the sweet, very controlled, and the salty; the lactic and the fruity. Kumquat, whiskey gelée, orange blossom cream, mint. We finished the menu with a light dessert. Citrus, floral and aromatic herbs that are combined, with the bitter, light and vanilla whiskey, appearing here and there. A great, light and unpredictable way to end a meal without excess sweetness.
In summary, the menu offered by Juan Carlos Ferrando and his team is, indeed, a culinary crossroads, the place where Argentina, France and the north of the peninsula meet to give shape to a journey without excesses, well measured, in the one in which the cook is capable of imposing a certain personal stamp without trying to dazzle with artifice; a restrained cuisine, deep, light, with an important vegetable presence and an original vision of the product that knows when to wrap it up, when to complement it and when it is better for the raw material to shine on its own.
Juan Carlos Ferrando cooks in a square, Logroño, which is going through a very interesting gastronomical moment and he does it from a personal point of view, from an accumulated baggage that turns his proposal into an alternative, into something that adds up and enriches the panorama. His is a personal kitchen, already from La Rioja, but also open to other worlds, who understands the product and knows how to propose it without shadowing it; tasty cuisine without unnecessary fanfare, intelligent and tasty, discreet at times, eclectic at times and to which, above all, you want to return.
