Some restaurants are the composition of a great master, a work in which the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. At three Michelin-starred Lasarte in Barcelona, the talent of its team multiplies exponentially to take culinary elegance to the highest level.
When you arrive at Lasarte, your experience can begin with a glass of Champagne in the cave du jour. This is where Iberian front of house icon Joan Carles Ibañez keeps the wines and usually receives his guests. Surrounded by bottles in a contemporary, elegant space and under the warmth of soft lighting, it’s impossible for guests not to notice a peculiar element: on a lectern on a large glass table is the score of ‘Egmont’, one of Ludwig van Beethoven’s great works.
With this composition, the genius from Bonn set to music Goethe’s play of the same name, which recounts the heroic defeat of Count Egmont by the despotic Duke of Alba during the Eighty Years’ War. The death of the Dutch martyr symbolizes the victory of freedom over oppression and for many musicologists Egmont is a “symphonic poem”. The parallel with the culinary symphony performed twice a day in Lasarte is inescapable and achieved by an ensemble that is nothing short of impressive, starting with Martín Berasategui, an 11 Michelin-starred culinary legend, and chef Paolo Casagrande who daily adds his own strong identity while holding the culinary reins of an elegant luxury hotel in one of the world’s gastronomy capitals.
Monument Hotel: The Sumptuous Setting
The hospitality of the 5*GL Monument Hotel, located on the best address of prime avenue Passeig de Gracia, makes it one of Barcelona’s finest luxury hotels. No other hotel in the city can boast to be housed in a modernist palace meanwhile boasting a restaurant with three Michelin stars, Lasarte, and another with one, Oria, which is the hotel’s more casual gastronomic offer.
At Lasarte, guests can enjoy the culinary artistry of world-renowned chefs Martin Berasategui and Paolo Casagrande. Visitors can also ascend to the 6th floor for views of Barcelona and relax on the Mediterranean-inspired rooftop terrace or refresh themselves with a dip in the rooftop pool. For relaxation and rejuvenation, the Wellness Studio offers a range of treatments.
Lasarte: A Great Culinary Symphony
At the end of the 18th century, the term “symphony” took on its current meaning and today it’s a musical composition of three or four movements performed by an orchestra, a perfectly tuned team. This is mirrored at Lasarte. After the reception in cave du jour, guests enter the main room, spacious and bright, designed by two great names: architect, industrial designer and multi-talented artist Óscar Tusquets, and interior designer Mercè Borrell. The space is elegant and contemporary, with an undulating metal ceiling contrasting with the light oak walls and floor. The whole thing creates an airy feeling, almost like being on a cloud.
Once seated, diners choose between a 12-course tasting menu or à la carte, and at lunchtime they can opt for a quicker 6-course menu, including starters and petit fours. The wine list offers an extensive tour of the world’s major wine regions, only naturally with a superb representation of Spanish and Catalan wines, as well as great wines from Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, Austria and Germany, among others.
Everything, from service to food is done with lightness and subtlety, with a majestic rhythm from Adagio to Andante, calm and lively the Lasarte team shows their savoir-faire. Soft linen tablecloths, exquisite crockery and glassware are used to display dishes composed like small works of goldsmith’s art with flavors that unite Italy, the Basque Country and the Mediterranean. The waiters glides along, creating a whole greater than the sum of its parts, a great culinary symphony of elegance and gastronomic know-how that makes you wonder: What’s the story of the virtuosos behind this exhibition?
Martín Berasategui: The Maestro
For the ancient Greeks, the word symphony meant a unity so harmonious and unshakable that the parts had a single voice, more beautiful than the sum of its parts. Perhaps it was with this in mind that Martín Berasategui built Lasarte on three pillars?
With 11 Michelin stars to his name only a few chefs ‘rank’ higher globally than Berasategui in the Red Guide. However, the road has not been quick or without effort, passion and dedication. In 2006, Berasategui took over the kitchen at Lasarte and decided to make it his culinary embassy in Barcelona, gradually recruiting a team to realize his vision for the restaurant.
The first to arrive, in 2010, was Xavi Donnay, a pastry chef extraordinaire. A year later, in 2011, Joan Carles Ibañez was welcomed onboard as the head waiter, and in 2012, Martín entrusted the direction of the kitchen to chef Paolo Casagrande with whom he had worked with for a long time. Martín Berasategui brought together a team of three virtuosos, each in their own discipline, and over time, after more than 12 years of working together, the team has become one of the most solid haute cuisine such in the world, each with their own awards and accolades to prove it.
The accolade to outshine them all came in 2017, three years after Paolo’s arrival in the kitchen, when Lasarte was awarded its third Michelin star and by that becoming Barcelona’s first such (today Gaudi’s city boast an impressive four three Michelin-starred restaurants), empowering a saga of culinary excellence in a city that today is one of the brightest culinary capitals of the world.
Paolo Casagrande: Cooking Emotions
Paolo Casagrande’s culinary memories go back to his childhood, when in his family home of Susegana, Treviso, the neighbors would jump over the wall to drink coffee with his family at the end of the banquets prepared by his grandmother. The flavors of the dishes cooked by her and the moments of spontaneous friendliness have remained forever in his memory and, like a chorus that repeats the main subject of the song, reminded him that cooking also is a tool for expressing and arousing emotions.
Paolo Casagrande is a discreet, subtle chef who exudes a quiet control over everything that goes on around him. You’ll find him working in the kitchen like any other cook, cracking open spiny sea urchins meanwhile overseeing the technical details of the future exclusive and private chef’s table extraordinaire overlooking his kitchen, where he will explore the limits of his cuisine. ‘Il Milione’ he names it while explaining it’s a culinary vision across cultures and time to be experienced in the future at Lasarte.
Subtlety, elegance, delicacy… Paolo Casagrande’s dishes bear the stamp of a chef with Italian roots, trained in the Basque Country under Martín Berasategui and consolidated in the Mediterranean city of Barcelona.
“I live and breathe the Mediterranean. I strongly believe that it is thanks to the Mediterranean that we have this level of creativity. Aside from the unprecedented variety of great produce, it is also a lifestyle. The sunshine, the nutrition, the character of the people here who are always open and cheerful”, Paolo explains.
But Paolo Casagrande is versatile and curious, and these traits prevent him from limiting himself to one place, even if the Mediterranean is the core of his cuisine. Of course he can cook an excellent risotto, but why limit himself to making it with carnaroli when he could turn the tradition on its head and make it with semi-wild Asian varieties? Or why not use ingredients he has discovered on his many travels? His style is not afraid to incorporate ingredients from all over the world.
The citrus pickled oyster is a tribute to Spanish tradition, the addition of with a short poultry broth is a nod to Catalan surf and turf, the mars i muntanya, and the hibiscus and coconut open the dish to the world. His ravioli with crustaceans and their essence, burrata and Champagne is a lascivious, delicious dish that sublimates the chef’s Italian flair and his exquisite mastery of fine cuisine. Another great example is the beautiful calamari tartare with green apple juice and liquorice emulsion is an example of the obsession with detail, from the texture of the squid to the position of every element on the plate: it’s a visually beautiful dish, a work of gastronomic goldsmithing.
In every dish, Paolo Casagrande surprises with his ability to assemble disparate, complex, sometimes unexpected ingredients, which in the end come together into harmony, extreme balance, and into preparations where no note is too much.
Joan Carles Ibáñez: Offering The Finest Service In Spain
Joan Carles Ibáñez is perhaps the perfect GM, director, maitre, sommelier. He can do it all. So much so that at the last edition of Michelin Gala España, he was awarded the prize for the best service, also in recognition of his many years of excellence.
“I was very proud to receive that award from Guide Michelin; it makes the work and effort behind a restaurant like Lasarte visible and is really a recognition tributed to all the people I have the pleasure to work with, great professionals from whom I learn every day and with whom I share humility, discretion, sensitivity, commitment, respect, and passion,” Ibañez comments.
He is one of Spain’s best sommeliers and began his career at the now-defunct French restaurant La Ciboulette in Barcelona. His next home was Santi Santamaría’s Racó de Can Fabes, the first restaurant in Catalonia to be awarded three Michelin stars (1994). Here Ibañez spent two decades. After the closure of Can Fabes in 2011, he joined Lasarte to manage the restaurant, and five years later he reached the three Michelin-starred mark for the second time, a milestone made possible thanks to the cohesion of an ensemble that works like a philharmonic orchestra.
Joan Carles Ibañez heads an impressive front of house team where he is supported by, amongst others, maitre d’ par excellence Antonio Coelho, and Laura Reyes as the sommelier. Together they age thousands of bottles in the restaurant’s underground cellar which only are brought up to the cave du jour when they are at their best.
Xavi Donnay: The World’s Best Pastry Chef
In the final part of Egmont, Beethoven evokes the joy of the Dutch people and the symphony reaches its climax at a high point. As with all great compositions, and it should not be forgotten that Lasarte is a work written by Martín Berasategui, the last act is on a par with the previous ones. Xavi Donnay, head of the sweet part of Lasarte, was named The Best Pastry Chef in the World by The Best Chef Awards in 2020, 10 years after joining the Lasarte team and three years after helping achieving the three Michelin stars.
Donnay has won more than a few awards and deserves every one of them. From the refreshing creamy basil, lime and bergamot, to the fantastic array of petit fours, he exhibits a masterful technique and a definition and intensity of flavours that justify every accolade. His desserts range from the delicacy of cinnamon, mandarin and rose spheres to the more umami profile of peanuts with tamarind, banana and toasted butter, with great intensity. Not forgetting cocoa, a fetish ingredient, which Xavi Donnay uses in various versions, such as the virtuous 70% hot chocolate cake with Earl Grey tea ice cream.
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About Lasarte, Guide Michelin states:
“Still unfamiliar with the gastronomic world of Martín Berasategui? It’s unusual to find spin-offs that manage to live up to the standards set by the original, but that is exactly what has happened in this incredible restaurant, named after the town (Lasarte) in which this chef has built his culinary empire. Here, Paolo Casagrande, the protégé of this San Sebastián culinary maestro, puts his own spin on exquisite dishes first conceived by his mentor, showcasing them in a more avant-garde setting (undulating ceilings that mimic waves, ethereal lamps that resemble jellyfish, golden tones etc). Whether you order from the à la carte or opt for one of several tasting menus, your experience is taken to the next level.”
And yes, Lasarte is next level, attracted by the certainty of perfection which, as in the case of a well-executed melody, becomes palpable in the intangible and memorable. At this restaurant guests experience something similar to Beethoven’s famous overture that presides over the restaurant, expressed in mouthfuls, in gestures, in aromas and grand hospitality. Lasarte is a poem, a symphonic poem interpreted by a perfectly assembled culinary orchestra.
Restaurant Lasarte
Carrer de Mallorca 259, L’Eixample, 08008 Barcelona
www.restaurantlasarte.com
