Congratulations have to go to Malaga’s leading chef, Dani Garcia as he finally gets the highly coveted Three Michelin Stars, an accolade never awarded to a chef in Malaga before. His restaurant, Dani Garcia, at the Puente Romano, is now one of 11 restaurants to hold this honour.
I first became aware and met the young aspiring chef, when he was at Tragabuches in Ronda. It was the first time I had eaten at a Michelin starred restaurant since I left the UK in 1986. We paid many visits to this One Star eatery during his tenancy and enjoyed nearly every meal. There was one occasion when we strayed from the Menu Degustación and chose from the a la carte. This was not a good idea and the final time before he left we returned to the set dinner. We did go again after he had left, but it was never to be the same. On this occasion there were four of us and we elected the set menu but it was pretentious to the point of ostentation. I pointed out to the new chef that his Michelin Star could only have been awarded for the ‘over the top’ crockery as the idea of a ‘tasting menu’ is to have something to taste. It was difficult to find any food with a one meter deep bowl!! Very expensive and not good so that was the last visit. Calima was good and I thoroughly enjoyed La Moraga both sadly of which morphed into something completely different!
When La Consular re opened a few years ago, they had a special week when all the Michelin Starred Chefs in Malaga catered for a day a of the week. I think eight of us went and while it was a spectacular lunchtime, I remember the meal for being unmemorable. But I remember my girlfriend saying, when I asked he what she thought, “It all looked wonderful and the tastes were OK, but it didn’t smell of anything.” I never forgot that as I know what she meant. Food has to smell good as well as look and taste good.
There are now eight One Star restaurants in the Malaga Provence (three being in Marbella) but no Two Stars and then we jump to Dani’s Three Stars. A great achievement and good for the Marbella Culinary scene.
