Good for off: La Tasqueria, Madrid

This article is part of FT Globetrotter’s Guide to Madrid

Stepping into Lataskeria without research may immediately provide you with what to expect. The decoration is cool and modest, organic and smooth, with oak cross chairs, granite-washed floors and white walls. food? It’s probably modern, and it’s a bit bounded.

However, La Tascare is not the average Chichi Spain restaurant. Perhaps Madrid’s most original luxury restaurant, a city undergoing a culinary revolution, and is increasingly recognized as one of Europe’s top gourmet destinations. At One Michelin Star’s La Tascare, chef Jabi Estevez focuses his entire offering on Casqueria (Ofal), bringing epic effects and a variety of tasting menus for diners to choose from.

“Ofall can prepare far more fun and engaging dishes with more possibilities in terms of texture and flavor,” says Estevez. “In the end, there’s not much potential for meat like cutlets.”

Diners can choose between shorter or longer versions of their new dishes, or instead choose the menu memoria, which celebrates the restaurant’s most iconic dish since it opened in 2015. There are also options to enjoy the best visits of recent visits. Even the snack course included many pieces of pork, cow and sheep, but as an off-off eater, I’ve never discovered it before. It included smoky pork nose salami, fried lamb brain bonbons, diced beef tesicles, rice and tomato-filled tartrets.

Historically, in Madrid, such an arrangement of Ofarus in a meal was not uncommon. They often serve dishes such as Kalos (tripes, chicks, blood sausage stew), Galinejas (fried drum tripe), and Entryjo (membrane illuminating the lamb-in test). Similarly, in other parts of Spain, tripes, trotters and kidneys are commonly used in slow-cooked stews. But tradition is declining. “In the past, it was probably mothers who were home to cook all these products,” Estevez said. “But this has changed a lot in recent years.”

Estevez wants to revive the use of humble ingredients by showing off his belongings in fine cuisine. He fondly recalls eating veal liver and onions (dressed up like veal fillets). In the restaurant, Estévez employs similar tricks to boost enthusiasm and complements the array of land-based ingredients using the salty flavor of seafood. I especially enjoyed his focaccia, layered with lime mayonnaise, beef tendons and cockles. Tendons appear in other dishes lined up in other dishes alongside sea creatures with visual similarity.

“In our case, as we say in Spain, the sea and mountains have always been there for a variety of reasons,” says Estevez. “For us, this connection has always worked really well and we’re always dependent on it.”

Estevez also introduces skin and skin from even further afield in the form of acid and spices, complementing and balanced the gelatinous and fatty cuts he works with. “When we try to come up with new dishes, we always look to other cultures,” he says. It cites North Africa, Peruvian and Mexican cuisine as its specific influences.

The food is challenging, but much of the menu is carefully cloaked with friendly presentations. There are also courses that go straight in, like a carbonara take with salty pork heads and salty pork slices instead of spaghetti, or a thin slice of squid instead of a comfortable lattice that is a homage to Kalos.

But it’s the pig’s head – that’s the real highlight. Presented on the table, Estevez pulls each edible bite away with surgical accuracy, leaving the cheeks, tongue, brain, nose and eyeballs on the plate along with a simple salad. The theatrical presentation encapsulates the chef’s spirit, but the meat is surprisingly satisfying.

“In the olden days, it has something to do with the time we spent more time cooking. Even people who had animals in their homes kept pigs. It was the most sustainable thing in the world,” says Estevez. “We’ve ate everything from the pig, the nose, the liver, the tripe, of course, the hips, the legs, the shoulders, and we’re using everything else to make sausages,” he says. For example, simply buying piglet heads, duck hearts, rabbit kidneys and pig ears will save a lot of food that restaurants will be dumped.

Estevez is pleased that his work has influenced other restaurants. But it makes O’Fal Aberth thrilling, which may be the most satisfying thing to him. “I don’t think there’s anything better than someone who doesn’t enjoy your restaurant a priori,” he says. “Then (they left) were happy to eat something they didn’t expect to eat in their lives.”

Do you have your favourite Ofal restaurant in Madrid? Please let me know in the comments below. Follow FT Globetrotter on Instagram to find out about your first latest story

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