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.
From summer 2015, Tina Soriano and Lucas Prats, owners of the idyllic boutique hotel Can Lluc in the heart of the San Rafael countryside, welcome guests to the newly opened Can Lluc Restaurant; a stylish and sophisticated eatery enabling more visitors to experience the true spirit – and tastes – of Ibiza, in a haven of tranquillity. Set on the Can Lluc estate, just outside the tiny village of San Rafael and surrounded by pine forest, almond and olive trees, Can Lluc feels a million miles away from anywhere, without actually being far away at all. Tina Soriano explains, “Can Lluc is a special place; somewhere people breathe deeply, relax, feel at peace, and connect with nature. We wanted more people to experience this, so, two years ago, we started making plans to create a restaurant and event space, which hotel and non-hotel guests alike could experience and enjoy.”
The result is an elegant, and lovingly creating restaurant under the stars, which serves diners the ultimate Ibiza dining experience. A magnetic atmosphere is created with the warmth of maitre d’restaurant Julian and the sights, scents and sounds of the magical setting. Can Lluc is a place to sip cocktails as the sun sets over the campo, and ease into an evening of sumptuous Ibicenco fare. The menu includes an array of grilled meats, fresh seafood and vegetarian dishes, all made with quality, locally sourced, Ibizan ingredients, or homegrown produce such as the Can Lluc figs, almonds and wine. The new cuisine offering at Can Lluc has been heavily shaped by new head chef, Manuel Anton, appointed six months ago. As the godson of the legendary Doña Margarita (a once-famous Ibiza restaurant in the 70s, 80s and 90s), he was born to be a chef, and sent off to the mainland be trained accordingly as a youngster. Following his work at Doña Margarita, Manuel worked at the immensely successful El Naranja, Santa Eulalia and Sa Punta.
Today at Can Lluc restaurant, the Ibiza born and bred Manuel combines his love and knowledge of local cuisine with his global culinary experience. Aligned with Tina and Lucas’s desire to share the best of Ibiza, Manuel has developed a close bond of trust with Can Lluc’s owners, and together they have worked to produce “a new feeling.” Tina fondly remarks, “Manuel sends me Whatsapps with pictures of the big fish he buys at the market each day. He is always taking care of sourcing the best produce.” The menu is based on traditional Ibicenco cuisine, with some fabulous international twists. Starters include Avocado with Mexican Salsa, where the ripe creamy avocado contrasts perfectly with the heat of chilli salsa, and Can Lluc’s own Gazpacho – a dish no Ibiza menu would be complete without! For mains, there are a selection of paellas to share, including the meaty Ibiza crab and octopus medley, simple meat dishes such as Grilled Sirloin with Mushrooms and Home Grown Vegetables (served crunchy and fresher than fresh) and an array of fish dishes, including the succulent and aromatic, Cod Confit in Vanilla Oil. An intelligently paired wine menu is available, or guests can order to suit their own tastes.
A culture’s food says so much about its personality, at Can Lluc guests can sample dishes grown in Ibiza’s soil, created by its people and in a beautiful Ibiza setting; it’s a cyclical sensory journey of the island through sight, smell, touch, sound and taste. Everything at Can Lluc is about connections, here guests connect with the island and each other through the food, and create beautiful memories.
Creating unforgettable gourmet experiencesIt’s no coincidence that the owners of stylishly cool Ibiza beach club Babylon Beach are also the people behind the only certified organic livestock farm in Ibiza, C’an Pere Mussona. With direct and unfettered access to the best ingredients on the island it’s easy to see how the talented chefs here are able to deliver some of the most delicious dishes in town. Much of the produce used in the Babylon Beach kitchen literally comes from the field and the farm in the morning morning to arrive on the plate that very same afternoon. The head chefs work closely with the farmers to o cultivate exactly what the restaurant needs in terms of produce and livestock and also works on a day-to-day basis with the local fishermen to obtain the finest, freshest catches.
On the farm, lambs, chickens and indigenous black pigs plus mountains of vegetables are at Babylon Beach’s disposal. The very few things that aren’t found on the farm are purchased from local Ibicenco families in the region, meaning the daily menus really are completely local. The team greatly value their relationships with the farm and their other suppliers, all of whom visit the laboratory-style kitchen where they work together like scientists to come up with fresh and exciting new menu ideas. Absolutely every last dish on the tempting menu is fresher than fresh, from the chips and the salads to the steaks and the seafood, and Babylon Beach prides itself on keeping things homemade. Even the bread comes from their own onsite pop-up bakery – created when the owners couldn’t find a local supplier who met their strict high standards – today’s fresh-basked goodies are now all made with organic flour.
Taking inspiration from international street food – where simple dishes become super special – the provenance of the ingredients is paramount at Babylon and the brilliant chefs are also the key to their success. Filippo Alberi and Simone D’Elia hail from Tuscany, and together they are the perfect team. Having run a restaurant together in Italy and also worked together in London they have been the ying to the other’s yang for over ten years. Filippo is the creative and technical head – the ‘elegant’ one, they say – adding astonishing details worthy of a Michelin star, whilst Simone employs his more rustic yet equally delicious approach to the food and is the business mastermind, making sure they present the perfect plate at the right price to their clients.
Filippo and Simone perfect the Babylon Beach menus over several months, deconstructing classics and finding the best ways to reinvent them. The menu includes some usual beach club suspects, but redone in Babylon’s bespoke way. The burger for example, is not just any burger. The star chefs whip up the perfect combination of beef, fat and marrowbone to make it a real show-stopper. The seafood risotto is made with not one but three different homemade fish stocks. Babylon’s mashed potato is whipped with rosemary, thyme, egg and smoked salt and has a delicious crispy finish. Even the ice lollies are not exempt from the Babylon beach twist – think unique flavours such as homemade cheesecake varieties. The attention to detail is incredible. This is food to make you go silent. For an Ibiza gourmet experience that won’t be forgotten, Babylon Beach is a must-go – by day or by night.
Time-honoured family recipesThey say there’s nothing like a good old fashioned home cooked meal for comfort, but when you’re on holiday on the Mediterranean island of Ibiza, stocking up on food and cooking yourself a meal isn’t always an option. But that’s ok, because at La Escollera – the beautiful beach restaurant on the end of the beach at Es Cavallet – there’s an entire menu of home cooking on offer, following the traditional recipes the owners’ grandmother, where you can satisfy all cravings. Yaya (the Catalan word from grandmother) actually hails from Barcelona, where she wasn’t always just whipping up her recipes for the family – she was also at the helm of a popular restaurant. Her delicious home-cooking won the hearts (and stomachs!) of many a diner, with hot shot businessmen dining side by side with blacksmiths and grocers, transcending the barriers of working and business class through food. How then, did Yaya go from a humble Barcelona kitchen to the luxurious beachfront restaurant of La Escollera? In the early 80s, Yaya’s son Daniel Gonzalez felt a calling to visit the Balearic islands, and found himself working his way around and up in the hospitality trade – first as a doorman at Pacha, then onto managing a private bar at Ku (now Privilege) before becoming the manager of the mighty Amnesia. Then, in 1992, a unique opportunity presented itself and Dani took the reins of La Escollera.
At the time, the little seaside hotspot was more of an apres-beach experience, spontaneously bursting into parties when the vibe was right. But Dani saw its true potential – to transform it into a beautiful dining destination – and knew there was someone he needed on his side to ensure it made the transformation successfully. Yaya was persuaded to pack up her bags and recipe books (many of which had been passed down through the family from her own mother, Dani’s Yaya) and move to Ibiza, setting up a new kitchen at La Escollera in 1994. Dani was right – with Yaya in the kitchen, the restaurant quickly started attracting the Ibicencos, who spread the word about the irresistible home cooking by the beach, at affordable prices. Then came the Spanish crowds, flocking to Es Cavallet from the mainland on their holidays, and then finally, the international jet set – a mix that is indicative of the crowds of diners at La Escollera today.
Preserving this mix of clientele is important to the restaurant – today a complete family affair, with Dani taking care of business wheelings and dealings, his partner Wilhelmina on sparkling hostess duties and her daughter Andrea – an interior designer responsible for the restaurant’s most recent beautiful refurbishment – running the day-to-day operations, with help from her siblings in the summer months, all taking pride in the fact that Yaya’s recipes are still at the heart of their menus. At 83 years of age, Yaya is no longer in the kitchen on a daily basis, but she personally trained the chefs and continues to keep a close eye on all the techniques, produce and recipes. Dividing her time between Barcelona and Ibiza, she is often spotted dining on her own creations on the sandy terrace of La Escollera – a beloved guest of all the staff, and regularly recognised by loyal clientele who have been visiting the restaurant for years.
For a true taste of Yaya’s recipes, be sure to order one of the famous rice dishes – from lobster-based paella to a divine mix of chicken, rabbit and vegetables – or try the ‘Boquerones Mama’ – anchovies done in her own unique style. The roasted John Dory served with ‘poor man’s potatoes’ (a melt-in-your-mouth mix of fried potato with onion and green peppers) is another star dish, as are the marinated mussels. The one thing that is consistent in every dish is love – from grandma, to mama, to son and grandchildren, these are time-honoured family recipes that will never, ever go out of style.
Alexander Larrea – Experimental Beach IbizaThe ultra stylish Experimental Beach Ibiza is the first and only beachside bar and restaurant from the collective behind the renowned Experimental Cocktail Club which boasts venues in London, Paris and New York. They serve lunch, sunset cocktails and dinner daily to their jet setting clientele on the beautiful beach at Cap d’es Falco, which means a busy kitchen, and obviously, an even busier head chef. We persuaded head chef Alexander Larrea to take a few minutes out of his busy schedule to talk to us about the magic he’s working there this summer.
What first brought you to Ibiza? I came to visit a friend and fell in love with the island. I’m from Bilbao and I always wanted to live somewhere different. The first year I worked at Vinyl; I returned the next year, in 2013 and came to this beach for the first time in my campervan to swim in the sea. I saw the beach club and thought wow! So I dropped in my CV, started working on the hotplates soon after, and then I was promoted to head chef.
How would you define your style of cuisine? I am very inspired by my Catalan grandmother, and my style is ‘cocina de verdad’ – real cooking. I believe in preserving the essence of the best quality ingredients. Our clients want relaxed, authentic food that is expertly made.
What kind of food do you like to eat yourself? I love my native Basque cuisine, Mediterranean of course, and I recently discovered I have Peruvian heritage which is great because it’s another cuisine that influences my cooking.
What is the Experimental Beach Ibiza star dish? It’s probably the Tiradito, a Peruvian-style sashimi. The combination is amazing – the acidity of the passion fruit, the crunch of the fried rocket and the delicious tiger milk marinade is really special. I am also particularly proud of the Marinated Sardines Terrine and the Charcoal Grilled Black Cod.
What are the best and worst things about being a chef? There’s a lot of pressure. I always want to deliver the perfect service. You have to juggle lots of things at the same time and the clock is always ticking. The best thing about my work is that it’s very gratifying, to do what I do here in this wonderful location. The Experimental Beach philosophy is to encourage me to develop and be different. They believe in me. So I feel very lucky.
What are your favourite restaurants in Ibiza? I love Sa Carboneria in Santa Eularia, also La Paloma, I want to try the new Adrian brothers’ restaurant Heart, and I like the restaurant at Destino.
Where do you go when you are not working? I love to go the cliffs at Pou des Lleó; I go there with my dog on almost all of my days off. I also like to have drinks and tapas in the old town.
What do you like most about living in Ibiza? It allows me to travel a lot. Every winter is different. This winter I worked in Bilbao and Paris, which was really interesting. My two passions are travelling and of course, cooking, and I love that I get to do both.
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.