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Grant Achatz
Gastón Acurio
Albert Adrià
Ferran Adrià
Iñaki Aizpitarte
Raúl Aleixandre
José Andrés
Hilario Arbelaitz
Sergi Arola
Elena Arzak
Juan Mari Arzak
Corrado Assenza
Alex Atala
Jason Atherton
Eneko Atxa
José Avillez
Martin Aw Yong
Sergio Azagra
Gérard Bannwarth
Dan Barber
Pascal Barbot
Darío Barrio
Aitor Basabe
Frédéric Bau
Bo Bech
Martín Berasategui
Mark Best
Vineet Bhatia
Heston Blumenthal
Paul Bocuse
Carl Borg
Carmelo Bosque
Toni Botella
Massimo Bottura
Michel Bras
Sebastien Bras
Jordi Butrón
Xosé Cannas
Homaro Cantu
David Chang
Carmelo Chiaramonte
Alberto Chicote
Carlos Cidón
Judit Comes
Igles Corelli
Angelo Corvitto
Carlo Cracco
Paul Cunnigham
Musa Dagdeviren
Mathias Dahlgren
Rodrigo de la Calle
Miguel Ángel de la Cruz
Manuel de la Osa
Javier de las Muelas
Carlos de Pablo
Josh DeChellis
Fernando del Cerro
Susi Díaz
Bricio Domínguez
Zhenxiang Dong
Alain Ducasse
Wylie Dufresne
Aitor Elízegui
Antoni Escribà
Christian Escribà
Gennaro Esposito
Montse Estruch
Juan Pablo Felipe
Sergi Fernández
Stefano Fontanesi
Ramón Freixa
Daniel Frías
Ana Gago
Carles Gaig
Salvador Gallego
Abraham García
Dani García
Kisko García
Sébastien Gaudard
Alexandre Gauthier
Ricardo Gil
Frédy Girardet
Daniel Giraud
Benito Gómez
Jesús González
Senén González
Michel Guérard
Yukio Hattori
Antoine-Laval Heerah
Sergio Herman
Pierre Hermé
Jordi Herrera
Rasmus Kofoed
Sotohiro Kosugi
Pedro Larumbe
Iñigo Lavado
William Ledeuil
Susur Lee
Gaston Lênotre
Ángel León
Gang Li
Cheong Liew
Alain LLorca
Juan José López
Andoni Luis Adúriz
Nacho Manzano
Gualtiero Marchesi
Denis Martin
Enrique Martínez
Josean Martínez Alija
Thierry Marx
Nati Mateos
Nobu Matsuhisa
Yves Mattagne
Harold McGee
Christophe Michalak
Mark Miller
Pedro Monge
Paco Morales
Marcos Morán
Pedro Morán
Kiko Moya
David Muñoz
Ricardo Muñoz
Yoshihiro Narisawa
Peter Nilsson
Enrique Olvera
Pichet Ong
Ken Oringer
Gonül Paksoy
Miguel Palomo
Francis Paniego
Mónica Patiño
Daniel Patterson
Rafael Peña
Toño Pérez
Agusti Peris
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Manel Plá
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Mads Refslund
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Pepe Rodríguez Rey
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Oriol Rovira
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Carme Ruscalleda
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Mª José San Román
Mikel Santamaría
Santi Santamaría
Ricardo Sanz
Davide Scabin
Pedro Miguel Schiaffino
Torsten Schmidt
Alain Senderens
Ben Shewry
Braulio Simancas
Yves Sinclair
Marc Singla
Pepe Solla
Pedro Subijana
Hervé This
Kunio Tokuoka
Jacob Torreblanca
Paco Torreblanca
Sergio y Javier Torres
Michel Troisgros
Pierre Troisgros
Charlie Trotter
Rafael Tugues
Schilo Van Coevorden
Mª Carmen Vélez
Marc Veyrat
Jordi Vilà
Tetsuya Wakuda
Gang Wang
Alice Waters
Heinz Winkler
Mikel Zeberio
The work of David Muñoz was just a nice surprise on the Madrid culinary scene but which has now consolidated itself as a long term project developed and supported by the talent of this chef. Muñoz represents the clearest example of the interpretation of culinary techniques and flavours from around the world taken from a really original Madrid point of view which aims to achieve sensitive provocation and has given rise to the term fusión cañí.
Pure magnetism
CURIOSITYFOIEMANIA+FOOTBALL=
DISCIPLINE
I love guys like David Muñoz and Ángela Montero, young, restless, perfectionists, hard workers who are convinced (with lots of ups and downs, of course) that a dream can come true; even convinced that the dream has exceed the limits of reality. This is what had happened with DiverXo; DiverXo= "fun" in Spanish..., diversity, fun. "Xo"= sauce from Hong Kong made with dried scallop, as a sautée but the other way round, it is one of David's favourites.
In July, last year, they opened a new DiverXo, just two years after bursting onto the world of cuisine for the first time in Madrid. David Muñoz and Ángela Montero moved to a bigger place (holding over 28 to 30 diners). The place is impeccable, austere in taste, just what his singular way of cooking requires. And, of course, it has a bigger kitchen. They don't sleep in the backroom anymore -as they used in the early stages of the first DiverXo-, but they still work 16 hours a day, 6 days a week. But, why are they causing such a stir? Why such an excitement? Because David Muñoz creates a really different cuisine, complex, laborious, harmonic and with a deep knowledge of each and every one of the ingredients he uses which are brought from the remotest corners of the world. And he manages to do so because he is extremely curious, instinctive, sensitive, a perfectionist, with an unbounded creative capability. And just three years ago he was a perfect stranger! In this short period of time the waiting list for both lunch and dinners, has earned tremendous praises on all the areas. And in the meantime, he has travelled to Singapore to a high level culinary summit along with the dishes of his menu. An unresolved matter: half a year in Madrid, another half in Singapore..., all in good time.
His way of cooking is not fusion because for David "fusion" has been turned over the last few years, into "confusion". So he defines his way of cooking as a cuisine of "both strong tastes and oriental influences while at the same time deeply rooted in Spanish traditions". Good products, infallible technique and never trust anything to chance. Preparations such as the semi-smoked cheek of salmon with cold macadamia nut cream and a touch of ginger gelatin to leave a subtle final citrus taste in our palates. The paprika Chili Crab and the chipotle chili with ali oli sauce, pigeon egg and butter bread with Pimentón de la Vera (a Spanish kind of paprika); or his suckling pig en dos vuelcos (in two turns), which is hard to explain and even harder to forget. Which is the secret of this brainy 29 year old, from La Elipa side of Madrid, who doesn't stop talking when he is working in the kitchen with his team?; he is a lively, grateful man. But suddenly; oh, God! What a misfortune! He has to stop working because of a call from a supplier who cannot deliver his order. "These are the kind of things which bother me, they ruin my day". We work under so much pressure that "nothing" can go wrong. This is the way it works; he's got more ideas than time and 24 hours a day are not enough.
Who is he? Where is he from? As a football player, David's future prospects were assured; he earned good money, he was young and some people were not able to come to terms with success. But the main grounds are already settled: discipline. He doesn't come from a catering family, but he does come from a family which allows itself certain gourmet liberties. And the first time David came into contact with cuisine was while working with Abraham García, a man with a hat, chef and hell raiser, in his first restaurant, Viridiana. Like one possessed, when he was just 13 years old, he needed the Viridiana's duck foie recipe: the foiemania. And his games in the kitchen in order to surprise his family. After the empty space which football left, he started studying in the Escuela de Hostelería de Torrejón de Ardoz (Torrejón de Ardoz's Hotel Management School). Afterwards, he worked in Balzac, Viridiana, Chantarella; and then Ángela, a dancer, turned up in his life... Again a disciplined person. They both headed to London and their first experience wasn't really good. Pure contradiction, because he had never been interested in oriental cuisine until, working in Hakkasan, the world of both dim sum and wok came into his life, but he could not cook these specialties. He just watched and memorized. And from there to Nobu, where he finally displayed all his talent with both Spanish and Japanese products. Then, he came back to Spain with a good knowledge of both cuisine and English, although with a "La Elipa side of town" pronunciation. And his new adventure in Madrid started, together with his alter ego, who hadn't a clue about the business although she became indispensable for DiverXo. And they even have a dog; its name? Dumpling; as expected.
EMMA SUEIRO
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