Dolce e pane

Bread has a history going back 30,000 years but surely it was the Italians who brought bread, as we know it, to the world. Not the factory made, cardboard replicas that modern technology has brought us but the real deal, made by the capable hands of a Nonna using a sourdough starter that has been in the family for decades, lovingly kneaded and baked before employed to sop up delicious sauces, carry delectable toppings or eaten ravenously with a hunk of farm butter. The trusty bakers at Ibiza’s beloved Italian fine dining restaurant, Can Domingo, know all this and a whole lot more.

All of Can Domingo’s baked goods are prepared daily on site. Although it may not be the loving hands of Nonna doing the kneading you can rest assured she is being channelled through the sensitive fingers of head chef Beppe Vivacqua and his team. Beppe’s love for all things good combined with an insatiable imagination means the breadbasket at Can Domingo is full of classic goodness such as focaccia barese and homemade grissini as well as unexpected additions such as walnuts, cacao, red peppers, olives and beetroot. The dough is always allowed a long leavening, creating a lighter, easily digestible loaf and the organic, stone-ground flour is imported from a small mill in Piemonte right in the heart of the Barolo. True bread lovers and home bakers will already know of the superiority of Italian flours.

Oh, and the dolce! One of the mysteries of life is that no matter how indulgent you feel after the main meal there is always room for dessert. Cooking in Ibiza provides the opportunity to mix local flavours with traditional dishes. Can Domingo’s Semifreddo is a delightful mouthful of local Ibiza honey with warmed dry figs, apricots, passito wine soup and freshly whipped cream. This year has seen the addition of granita; one flavoured with local watermelon and topped with Sambuca infused whipped cream and another with poppy seed and coffee.

All cream is made fresh from milk sourced locally in Santa Gertrudis and one of the best ways to enjoy it is with the mango pannacotta, a quivering, exotic, morsel of heaven. Obviously, there are times when only chocolate will do and only in the form of a Tanzania Hot Chocolate Melting Cake (yes, it does deserve capital letters) served with a salted caramel fiordilatte ice cream and made with the best quality, 75-percent Tanzanian chocolate, best followed by freshly brewed coffee and infusions with homemade ‘petite patisserie’. Really, the only way to get the most out of Can Domingo’s incredible baked goods and desserts is to eat there multiple times to ensure you get a taste of everything.

Music and the food of love

Italian fine dining restaurant, Can Domingo, have perfected this trio of life’s joys by hosting live music every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday nights from June until the end of summer in their beautiful garden space in the hills of San Jose. The band performs a selection of classic jazz standards, the work of Italian singer-songwriters of the 1960s and rhythmic improvs, riffing off timeless funky beats of yesteryear.

Tuesdays see Chiara take the mic to serenade the stars with songs from some of her jazz idols such as Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Julie London. The ambience couldn’t be more suited for this homage to the dames of jazz. On Thursdays the band take Can Domingo on a journey through the pantheon of Italian singer-songwriters. Be romanced by the likes of Paolo Conte, Mina and Gino Paoli. Saturdays is when the band let loose in a free styling improv based on ageless funky.

Chiara had little choice but to let music into her life. Her grandfather was in the chorus at the world famous La Scala Opera House. Growing up was a melange of family sing-a-longs and from a very young age she had music in her soul. “We sang together always,” she says. “Classical, vintage, all the music I love is old. It must be my grandfather’s influence.” Her first visit to Ibiza was in 1995 and from the moment she touched down she wanted to live here. It took a while to make the dream come true. She met her husband, Alessandro Barni Spadacini, in their hometown of Milan, fell in love and created three beautiful children. They both had the dream to one day live in Ibiza and finally the dream came true. Can Domingo was born when Alessandro teamed up with Beppe Vivacqua and Andrea Sanarica to craft Ibiza’s most romantic fine dining Italian restaurant.

There was a band already providing ambient music a couple of nights a week and Alessandro, having witnessed Chiara’s talents encouraged her to join in. “Alessandro said to me, ‘This is a family business, sing with them!’ so I overcame my shyness and now it fits so perfectly. I love it.” The jazz and blues scene in Ibiza is a small eclectic community of excellent musicians and Chiara was soon enveloped within the local music scene. This year the Can Domingo house band is made up of pianist Luis Garcia Lillo, a child prodigy who has worked all over the world, Giovanni Perez, a bassist who brings a sultry sound from his Cuban homeland to the island and Fabio Capelli, saxophonist and composer whose work has featured in film scores and well-known ads.

For Chiara and the Can Domingo team music is something that envelops the ambience and complements the experience. Science tells us that smell, taste and music are essential in creating memories. We all have songs that invoke a moment in our lives and the foodies among us can recall meals of importance at the blink of an eye. “It has to be somewhat refined, like the cuisine. Music that is in tune with everything else, the wine, the food, the atmosphere. Nothing matches a fine wine better than Ella Fitzgerald,” says Chiara. We think The First Lady of Song would definitely agree.

Andrea Sanarica, Can Domingo

It should never outshine the lead star – the food – but should always offer more substance then an extra. Diners require just the right amount of attention, not too much, just the right amount of knowledge but never arrogance and a service adept at intuitive thoughtfulness. Eating at Italian fine dining restaurant Can Domingo is rather like witnessing a well-choreographed culinary ballet. Front of house maestro and one of the three founding owners, Andrea Sanarica, knows his profession and conducts his team with casual aplomb, providing just the right amount of everything to make dining a superb experience. Born in Bergamo to a family of foodies, Andrea’s palate was set early in life. Combining both his love of adventure and food, Andrea set off around the world working and eating his way through London, Melbourne, Thailand and China until finally settling in Ibiza.

Tell us your Ibiza story? I had gone back to Italy after living and working overseas but I realised the lifestyle wasn’t right for me anymore. I wanted to open my own place but the rat race in the big cities just wasn’t for me. I knew I wouldn’t be able to follow my dreams there. So, I took all my money from the bank and kept moving! My great-uncle had come to live in Ibiza in the 70s so I came to visit him. After three days here I knew it was the place for me and I started to look for a restaurant. I met Alessandro [Barni Spadacini] and Beppe [Vivacqua] and together we made Can Domingo. How did you find yourself in the restaurant game? I always had a passion for food. I was very lucky growing up, we always went out to eat at the best restaurants. There was always someone cooking something in my house. In my family there is an innate awareness of food and wine, an appreciation, it was all around me as a kid. I wanted to travel and working in restaurants is a great way to do that. I went to London to perfect my English and then studied Communications and then did a masters in management and marketing. I travelled to Australia and worked there. I worked for an Italian company in China. There I studied Mandarin and began to manage restaurants in five-star hotels and in EXPO 2010. But I always had the dream to have my own place.

How to you describe the style of Can Domingo? My vision is to keep the service high quality but super familiar, that you are at home when you come in. I like that idea. Good service like in any fine dining restaurant but without arrogance or being uptight. Here, there is no judgement, it’s all about relaxing, indulging, taking your time to enjoy. That’s what I always transmit to the team. Our staff know our customers by name, they walk in and are greeted with a smile, with warmth. People feel comfortable; they come and sit for three, four hours. You’ve created a beautiful space. Talk us through it. There are lots of different locations within the restaurant for romance, privacy and celebration. There is the sea view, the garden, the room inside and the terraces – a place to create any kind of ambience. The olive tree is the most requested table for romantic dinners. The main terraces have more energy, there is something for everyone. Diners can be in the middle of the garden or in the middle of the people. The terraces can be booked for private events with dedicated waiters and bar tenders for small parties, like engagements or birthdays or just to get people together. You don’t need a reason to celebrate!

Have you had many marriage proposals? We’ve had many! Almost always under the olive tree. We prepare something special, candles, roses, sometimes we go to serve them and they are crying! Last year, a client had a table on the terrace; he arranged a secret signal with me so that I could open the champagne bottle at just the right time. We have other surprises too. We had one client, who was from UK and she was from Spain, and they have kids from previous marriages. But the children weren’t with them. He had arranged for the kids to hide in the restaurant and pop out to surprise her. It was only meant to be the two of them so we hid the kids and then brought them out, she was so surprised to see them. So, there must be lots of weddings too. We’ve also done really small intimate weddings for seven to ten people, they are always beautiful, just family and there is so much love. And we’ve done really big ones too. I treat them like my mother would like me to treat them. I question everything, what’s next, what will they need, I try to anticipate; I always ask myself “What would my mother do for these people?” And that’s the way I run the front of house. I didn’t learn from a school, of course I had experience working, but my school was my family, how to behave, how to be a good host, how to serve and look after people, all that came from my mother. Your mother must be very proud. Does she visit often? My mother has been here many times. She comes every summer to check on us, to see if I am getting too skinny! Without her support I would never have been able to do this. She bosses me around too of course! If something needs to change she’s at that age where she doesn’t have to ask permission, she just says it. She’s my first PR! My best PR. She tells everybody about the restaurant.

Is there a philosophy behind good service? Each customer is different, with different needs. There is a psychological approach to service; we need to read the client, to interpret the best way for them to enjoy their time here. It’s precious, as they are often here on holiday and it might be the only one they get in a year, so they must get the most out of the experience. That’s what we provide. To create a memory for them. It doesn’t matter if it’s a rich person or a regular family – every one has their own diverse experiences. It’s my job to read that, to anticipate those needs and provide them with warmth. Tell us about your staff. We are always here, the three owners, and this makes a difference; it keeps the level of service exactly as it should be at all times. We have been working with the same two waiters for the last four years. They have been with us from the start. It’s a testament that they keep coming back to work with us. We are a family. We care for each other and for our customers; it makes the ambience very nice to be in. What do you love about living in Ibiza? The opportunities. Everyone is equal. It’s a good vibe, lovely people. My work is at night, so my social life has to fit around it. I love to dance and go to parties, and when you live here and every one is on holiday it feels like you are too, even though you are working. When you have free time you enjoy it to the fullest. I’ve travelled a lot; there is nothing like Ibiza and the opportunities here. It’s booming, still. If you do well in Ibiza it means you are very good at what you do because people crave good quality.

Food for the soul

Soft spoken and considered, not the expected temperament of a fine dining chef, more like an artisan who quietly but with great assurance practises his craft. And that is very much what he is. For Beppe the connection between his hands that create the dishes and his mind that dreams them up is one and the same. The spiritual meaning behind the human need for alimentation goes beyond just food; it’s about providing the necessities of life. This year Beppe travelled to Thailand to participate in a Vipassana meditation course, which involves ten days of total silence. The idea is to create a flowing current between calmness and insight, and it can be tough going. Despite being surrounded by others you are totally and completely alone with yourself. For Beppe it was revelatory and inspirational. There he reconnected with this creative self, ideas flowed and blossomed, and equilibrium was recalibrated. It was during a meditation that the seed of a new dish sprouted. Colours appeared in his minds eye and over time the dish developed into what he calls Walking Meditation – a vegan pasta dish reverberating in the greens and reds of the garden and the tastes and techniques of both Italy and Asia. The gentle dance between flavours, aroma and texture is much like the dance of life. A little of this, not too much of that until it’s just right.

Can Domingo is a seasonal restaurant and while the waiters may pack away their aprons and go on holiday in the winter, the work of the chef never pauses; he is always thinking, plotting, experimenting, tasting. There is no end to his curiosity. Meditation and self-discovery is just another aspect to his work. “Everything is important,” Beppe intones quietly. “The kitchen is the motor. Service, ambience, it’s all very important but it’s through our food that we communicate. We all do. Here in the restaurant, and for families at home, food is the great communicator.” The same goes for Can Domingo’s provedores. Beppe travels widely throughout Italy to meet personally with small producers. His criterion is simple but increasingly hard to meet. He has to be able to look the farmers, millers and producers right in the eye and see the same passion and respect that he himself holds dearly. He knows all the processes of the cheesemaker, the rice grower, the wheat farmer. They seem to be small details but the proof is in the tasting. The wheat farmer can look at a packet of his flour and know exactly which wheat field the flour inside came from. “It hardly exists anymore, this attention to detail. Many of these people are six or seventh generation, and they are using the same beautiful machines their great-grandfathers used. It’s beautiful.”

This season Beppe is directing some of his focus onto a small vegan menu. Already dishing out some spectacular vegetable dishes he wants to further showcase the amazing produce that comes from Ibiza, Italy and his own beloved garden. “We are not leaving the rest behind of course, we are Italian after all!” Meat lovers will be pleased to hear that all of the carnivorous delights of Ibiza and Italy will still feature on the menu. Part of the inspiration for this direction came from the garden Beppe has lovingly cultivated in the red earth around Can Domingo. Another part of it came from one of his most respected heroes – Pietro Leemann who heads up Joia in Milan, Europe’s only Michelin starred fine dining vegetarian restaurant. This winter Beppe completed a course with his maestro, gaining new skills, techniques, connections and inspirations that he will bring into the Can Domingo kitchen with much gusto and as always, much love.

Love is in the air

Set high in the hills of San Jose, as if it were floating on a cloud, fine dining Italian restaurant Can Domingo provides the picture perfect setting for an Ibiza wedding. Starting in the beautiful garden, with views out to across the countryside to the azure Mediterranean Sea, guests can enjoy the magical Ibiza sunset hour before being treated to a culinary experience like no other. Seating up to 140 guests, the team at Can Domingo work closely with each wedding couple to create their dream event. From wonderful menus, décor and entertainment – including their in-house jazz band or DJs – to assistance with accommodation and transport for your guests, Can Domingo can make your wedding dreams reality, as they did for the couples featured below.

Artemis & Manu – Fabulous fiesta Young, hip and intent on celebrating their love to the max, Swiss couple Artemis and Manu chose Can Domingo for its beauty, laidback ambience and amazing food. 75 of their nearest and dearest joined them for a fun and funky event that saw the restaurant decked out in all-white for the occasion, creating a magical Balearic experience to be remembered. Opting for a DJ throughout the course of the night – including guest appearances from some of their friends – the small dining room inside the finca at Can Domingo was transformed into a mini-club for the post-dinner party between midnight and 3am, when music can no longer be played outside. Artemis and Manu even brought a bubble making machine to the event to add to the whimsical vibe of the occasion.

In keeping with the informal atmosphere, a casual but high quality barbecue menu was designed for the event, starting with welcome bubbles and finger food, served by waiters and also presented in a buffet format. Think homemade breads and dip, vegetable tatin, deep fried Pugliese Pittole bread, vitello tonnato, eggplant parmigiana rolls, arancini, vegetable tempura and professional Jamoneros slicing ham and prosciutto live. Can Domingo head chef patron Giuseppe and his sous chef then set up live cooking stations in the garden, whipping up a divine paccheri with grouper ragu or fresh tomato sauce for vegetarians, plus a risotto with Ibicenco herbs and lemon zest before guests’ eyes. Additional food stations were also set up, including an Argentinian meat barbecue, serving up sizzling beef chuleton, free range chicken, locally made Butifarra sausages, Ibicenco pork loin, chorizo and more. A Mediterranean fish and seafood station served mussels sautéed Pugliese style, grilled calamari, rice and seafood salads, marinated salmon, Mediterranean style grilled swordfish and oven baked breaded mackerel. And if that wasn’t enough, the meal ended with an amazing mini dessert buffet featuring panacotta, chocolate mousse, red fruit cheesecake and tiramisu, before the party kicked on ‘til the early hours… “We had the best and most amazing wedding ever,” says Artemis. “Amazing organisation, super delicious food and our guests enjoyed it a lot.”

Frank & Frank – Understated elegance German couple Frank and Frank had visited the sophisticated fine dining restaurant several times for dinner throughout the previous summer season and fell in love with its ambience, elegant setting, high quality service and of course, exceptional cuisine. Wanting their 85 guests to experience the very same elegant setting they had originally enjoyed, Frank and Frank opted to keep the decoration of Can Domingo very simple and chic, dressed in its classic orange tablecloths and making the most of the green-hued finca and gardens. Guests flew in from all over the world for the event, which began with an aperitivo in the garden and included live jazz from Can Domingo’s in-house band throughout the night.

The entrée buffet included Sicilian anchovies, with homemade brioche and truffle butter, deep fried meatballs, vegetable strudel, canapés and parma ham among other tasty bites – washed down with champagne, of course. A typical Italian style antipasti followed, including vitello tonnato and zucchini flower salad with parmesan and rocket. For the main meal, guests were served a delectable homemade beef ravioli with butter and Parmesan aged 36 months or a fine herb risotto with lemon zest. Secondo was Italian style herbed roast beef with seasonal vegetables or seabass and potato mille-feuille with black olives and cherry tomato. To finish, a beautiful wedding cake with fresh fruit and whipped cream was served – the perfect end to a perfect evening. “Andrea and the whole team at Can Domingo made our wedding dinner so special for us,” says Frank. “For the food, the service, the ambience and if you have a chance to go when the live jazz is playing – we highly recommend it.”

Meet the chef – Can Domingo

Ibiza fine dining restaurant Can Domingo is the culmination of a life lived steeped in good food and good company. Giuseppe Vivacqua was born in the northern Italian city of Turin but his parents hail from the southern province of Calabria. Beppe – as his friends call him – combines the two distinct flavours of north and south Italy in a seamless and ever evolving menu. Beppe’s life revolves around food. His spare time is spent lovingly caring for the Can Domingo vegetable garden where he finds an endless font of inspiration growing up from the earth. When he is not in the kitchen or the garden he is walking in the forests of Ibiza, reading from his ever-growing library of cookbooks and thinking, always, about food. Beppe stopped cooking for a moment to talk to White Ibiza about, well, about food of course!

Tell us a bit about your background? I grew up in my mother’s the kitchen, watching her cook and helping her whenever I could. Later an old friend asked me to join him in his restaurant as an assistant chef. From there my passion was ignited and I travelled around Italy becoming an unpaid apprentice at some of the country’s finest restaurants. Each restaurant had its own code and it was in their kitchens I picked up many useful skills. When I wasn’t working I was reading, watching documentaries about chefs and experimenting. This coming winter I hope to do another ‘stage’ at a vegetarian restaurant, an area that has become increasingly interesting to me. To me, you can never stop discovering.

What led you to work at Can Domingo? I was working for six years at Macao Cafe in Santa Gertrudis and had been thinking about opening my own place for a long time. I was looking at small places, talking to people, and I met [Can Domingo co-owner] Andrea, so we were looking together. Then we found Can Domingo. It was a bit bigger than we had originally thought of doing. We met Alessandro, who was really new to the island and then we went to see the place together, we got to know each other and then it happened. And we get on really well. We have formed a really great team.

How do you describe your style in the kitchen? I like to be involved in everything. There are chefs who expect a lot but I’m pretty normal. I like to create a relaxed ambience in the kitchen, but with concentration and passion. It’s a hard job, if someone has something going on it comes out in the food, there has to be a touch of hospitality, that people feel good to be there, to cook with me. There has to be that tenderness and love so the food is quality. Everyone is at the same level at Can Domingo – the front of house hosts, chefs, everyone feels comfortable and looked after. Every one who works for us is fantastic.

And your style of cuisine? I try never to use out of season produce. My family was from the country, they lived seasonally even in the city. Seasonal produce has the best flavours and is the best for your health. I always try my best to use ingredients that come from as close to us as possible, so that they are fresh and have not been transported too far. We try to import very few things, some things we have to get from Italy but everything else comes from the island wherever possible. In my dishes, I like the flavours to be delicate, to stand alone as well as mix well with the others. Nothing too complicated, so that the freshness is what makes the flavour.

What inspires the creation of new dishes? Here in Ibiza, every Italian restaurant serves the same thing. It’s what people think of as the classics but which are in fact not always. We make food a little differently. The new ideas come in the moment, from a trip away, from the ingredients in the garden, a film I’ve seen or a book I’ve read, a walk I’ve taken smelling the forest. The forest is full of wild plants; the smell can inspire a new dish in my mind. The scents of Ibiza inspire me a lot. I think the memory part of the brain, the hippocampus, is used more by cooks, we smell something, a spice a herb a flower and we go back to a memory from a long time ago. And boom,  out of that comes the idea, from the memory comes the dish.

Can you give us an example? There is an almond tree in the restaurant garden, it’s not beautiful, it’s twisted and old, but it’s my favourite. The vegetable garden is under it, I was thinking about it, it gives shade, protects the plants and vegetables. I began to think about what this tree gives to the restaurant through this protection and that is how the dish I call Bajo el Almendro (Under The Almond Tree) came to my mind. I play in the garden, there is a story in the dish, I think about the colours, the smells, the textures. The orange tree that I planted three years ago is also in that dish. Every plant that is protected by the almond tree is in the dish.

What is your signature/star dish? Well, at the moment my personal favourite is Bajo El Almendro. It’s a puree of dry broad bean, fresh green beans and broad beans, sautéed fresh onions, roasted orange sauce, fresh chard and almond milk foam. But it will change of course, when the season changes, when my ideas change, my signature will change. I try not to identify myself with one plate so that I don’t tire of any one dish.

What are your favourite restaurants in Ibiza? This is the hardest question to answer. I’ve been here 14 years. At the moment, I have to say, La Paloma Cafe is a favourite. And O’pazo. The restaurant is not in such a great location but the food is excellent. It’s seafood, from Galicia, all the classic dishes. When I want seafood like oysters, sea truffles, lobster, percebes, I go there.

What do you like most about living in Ibiza? It’s tranquil. Not so much traffic. I can leave my car unlocked. I love the forest, the natural beauty, the countryside. It’s a simple life. I enjoy mostly the simplicity of daily life. People aren’t so stressed out. I spent six months of the winter in a few cities, where there are too many people, too much anger, too many cars. Here people are much more relaxed.

Jazz in the hills

We wanted to get dressed up. We wanted to go out. We wanted to do something sophisticated, something fun, and something you can’t do every other night of the week in Ibiza.

Which, when you think about it, is a pretty tough call, given that Ibiza is brimming with millions of things to do any given night of the week! 

But thankfully for us, there were whispers of a new weekly happening in the hills of San Jose, an open air dinner event to celebrate the opening of a new champagne and cocktail lounge, complete with live jazz. LIVE JAZZ! Now that’s something different to the typical 4/4 beat bonanzas we usually get to hear over our dinner (not that I’m usually complaining) conversations. The closer the weekend came, the more we got excited to make the trip to the campo – and of course, planning our outfits!

The place in question? Can Domingo, the beautiful Italian fine dining restaurant set in an ancient finca, decorated in charming, country-style furnishings and boasting a laid-back elegance that very few Ibiza restaurants can rival. It’s all about enjoying the moment, and letting said moment last…

As you drive through the San Jose hills, the restaurant’s softly lit silhouette appears like a magical little floating mirage in the hills, looking as if it were suspended on clouds, giving you a feeling of mystery, of magic, and excited anticipation about what’s to come.

As we continued down the bumpy, dark camino (the darkness of the countryside adding further to the building intrigue), passing ‘beware the bunny’ signs that must be a tongue-in-cheek nod to the restaurant’s Donnie Darko-esque logo, I couldn’t help but feel like we were heading to a secret member’s club party, an eyes wide shut style affair or even an underground rave – it was just so tranquil and quiet with no clue as to what was further ahead!

Once we arrived at Can Domingo however, the atmosphere couldn’t have been further from tranquil – the restaurant was completely full and buzzing with excitement, while the airwaves were full of the sweet strains of the jazz troupe playing in the garden (and also with the smell of delicious Italian food wafting through the air) contrasting with the clink of champagne glasses.

Mmmm, did someone say champagne? As we were ushered into the champagne and cocktail lounge (which is actually the gorgeous alfresco bar built on an ancient stable and under an olive tree in the garden), the bubbles were free flowing and we sipped and strolled through the magical garden space, under the stars and the twinkling lanterns hanging elegantly from the trees.

Whether you came for the full dinner experience or just a drink (or three) and to enjoy the music, it felt like you were taking part in a modern day fairytale.

For me, strolling around Can Domingo feels a little like Alice must have felt after falling through the rabbit hole – there’s always some quaint or quirky detail catching your eye, making you check out a new space, wall, cabinet, piece of furniture… from cute little wall hangings and tapestries, to the huge, art deco inspired bird-themed wallpaper installations, the attention to detail is immaculate (and very Instagram-able!).

With romantic tables for two set in cozy corners, big, long tables for families and groups on the lower level, there is a space for everyone at Can Domingo… It was a sophisticated, older crowd in attendance… plenty of designer clothes and investment handbags had my eyes kept wide open everywhere I looked!

Speaking of fashion and style, within the finca was a truly gorgeous pop-up store, curated by our good friend Anisya Sam of Solis Lucrum. Amazing couture creations, impressive costume jewellery, soft and silky kaftans, one-off vintage creations and even a cool range of menswear tempted me from the rails and beautiful wooden cabinets… only in Ibiza can you go out to hear some live jazz and go home with a diamante encrusted wrist cuff!