“From Canvas to Plate” menu at Barceló Málaga
David Sanmartín, chef of the hotel’s award-winning El Andén restaurant, has used works of art on display at the Carmen Thyssen Museum in Málaga as the inspiration for a week-long “From Canvas to Plate” menu.
Contemplating a painting and savouring a dish of food have a common exponent, he explains. “They are both experiences for the senses, with personal sensitivities playing a a key role.”
The first “brushstroke” is ajoblanco, a traditional Andalucian cold soup served with grapes, inspired by “La fuente de Reding”, an oil painting by Guillermo Gómez Gil.
The next aperitif is a mini-hamburger of oxtail, alluding to “Picador herido” by Marià Fortuny i Marsal; followed by a salad consisting of purple-coloured potatoes, bacalao (cod) petals, spring onion and elderberry flowers, and imitating the colour palette and geometric shapes of Juan Gris’s “Mujer sentada”.
The natural colours featured in Claude Monet’s “La maison vue du jardin aux roses” inspired a deer steak dish accompanied by green mustard and rose petals.
Finally, for dessert, Sanmartín took inspiration from Henri Matisse’s “La Conversation sous les oliviers”, to create a colourful dish of chocolate flakes, pistachio and lemon mousse.
The menu costs €35 (including wine) and is available for hotel clients as well as members of the public. The wine served at a special presentation lunch for the media was Codorniu 1551, Solear sherry and Enate red from Somontano.