EAT MORE IN MAJORCA
Chris Leadbeater finds Michelin restaurants rubbing shoulders with great tapas bars in the capital
Where Michelin restaurants rub shoulders with tapas bars
AT first glance, Carrer Arabí seems a false step in my search for a gourmet dinner in Palma, Majorca. I have turned west at the Parròquia de Sant Miquel — a broad sandstone block which, born of the 14th century, is supposed to be the oldest church in Palma de Majorca. The little square that lurks in its shadow slopes underfoot, funnelling me down a flight of steps into the equally narrow Carrer de la Missió. I begin to wonder if I’m lost.
My confusion continues as I arrive at the door of the Hotel Convent de la Missió. Its smooth concrete façade, almost windowless, gives few clues — either to the building’s 17th-cen- tury foundation as a monastery, or to its modern reincarnation as a place of accommodation and gastronomy. It is only when I step inside, to be greeted by Marc Fosh, that my sense of disorientation begins to dissipate — although he too confesses to a moment of bemusement.
“I remember, just after we opened, coming into this room to find an elderly gentleman standing over there,” he gestures, his London accent undimmed by 20 years away from Britain. “I asked if I could help him. ‘No,’ he said — he was just imagining the place as it looked when he used to eat here, when it was the refectory. He said he could still picture it.”
The “we” Fosh is referring to is Simply Fosh, the hotel’s restaurant, and his own baby. He launched it in 2009. “I remember adding the furniture, looking around and thinking, ‘No one will come here.” He was wrong. In November, Simply Fosh was awarded a Michelin star.
This might seem an odd concept for a city so closely associated with its near-neighbour, the beach resort of Magaluf, whose bars, boozy brawls and braggadocio are a mere 50 minutes’ drive away.
Yet, from the peaks of the Serra de Tramuntana to the cliffs of Cap de Formentor, Majorca has always been more than Magaluf. And its capital is a shard of sophistication. True, Palma is not huge — a pocket of just over 400 000 souls. But it feels bigger than this, its image splendidly inflated by the majestic La Seu (surely Spain’s most beautiful cathedral), the elegant avenues of La Rambla, the collonaded square of Placa Major (not as expansive as its Madrid namesake) and the contemporary flair of Es Baluard, where artworks by Joan Miró and Miquel Barceló hold court in what was a 16th-century fortress.
“Majorca is so different to the British perception,” Fosh says. “The Germans, the Swiss, the Scandina-
vians, have a very different view.”
And yet, when he came here, it was his aim to get away from haute cuisine.
He’d already earned a Michelin star at Majorca’s Read’s Hotel, and had worked under the Michelinstarred Martín Berasategui in San Sebastian.
“I wanted to get away from the idea of Michelin and serious gastronomy,” he says. “We had no tablecloths, we left wine bottles on the tables.”
He sticks to this vision at lunchtime via a casual menu aimed at workers in the city — then plays his best tricks in the evening.
The degustación menu I enjoy is a feast with a Mediterranean emphasis (“No cream, no butter, lots of olive oil,” Fosh says). At à89 for seven courses (minus wine), it is excellent value for a Michelin-rated dinner.
Fosh’s is the first Michelin star in Palma, but the eighth on the island — and it is hard to shake the sensation that Majorca is positioning itself as a gastro-destination. “Palma’s food scene has advanced hugely,” Fosh adds. “And I don’t just mean at the top end. There are some great tapas bars.”
As I wander the city, I see his point. Just around the corner on Carrer Arabí, La Biblioteca de Babel is epicurean Palma at its quirkiest — a bookshop that fills its shelves with tomes by Nietzsche, Plato and Homer, but intermingles these volumes with bottles of Majorcan wine and vinegar, tables on the
street, and laden cheeseboards for
à14.
A short walk away, Ca’n Joan de S’aigo keeps things fascinating as Palma’s oldest bakery in continuous service — a relic of 1700, its décor a mix of art-deco glass and arabesque alcoves, its counters groaning with that most classic of Majorcan pastries, ensaimada, at à1.30 a slice.
Then there are the upper echelons — Hotel Can Cera, a five-star palace where 14 rooms reflect their 17thcentury origins, and the attached Can Cera Gastro Bar, with a gorgeous interior courtyard.
De Tokio a Lima, in the boutique Can Alomar hotel, combines Japanese and Peruvian flavours in “Nikkei” dishes such as seared tuna tartare with avocado and crispy yucca.
But I find myself gravitating towards the middle bracket. Fosh’s talk of “great tapas bars” is visible in La Rosa Vermutería, a haven of small plates and style that opened last July, but has already built a loyal clientele. When I visit on a Saturday evening, waiters flit between the tables as a ceaseless buzz of conversation ebbs across platters of cod croquetas , calamari skewers and pork-and-fig paté.
The pace is at least a little less flustered the following lunchtime at the Centre Cultural de S’Escorxador — a former meat-packing complex, now the San Juan Gastronomic Mar- ket. Here, under thick wood beams and retained metal pipes, delicate morsels of steak and ruddy slices of jamon are devoured by everyone from new mothers to teenagers to retired men. Seventeen stalls are fixed to the perimeter, and whether your appetite demands Basque pintxos, Balearic fish or Thai chicken curry, you can sate it here.
Three kilometres north of the waterfront, the market is also proof that Palma’s love of its next meal flows beyond its immediate core. It infiltrates the Mercado Municipal in the northeasterly district of Pere Garau — where salmon, tuna, squid and eel gleam on marble slabs opposite baskets of fresh walnuts. It infuses the sibling market in westerly Santa Catalina, where island wine is sold for as little as à1.85 a litre but new influences are also saluted at the Arume Sushi Bar. And it all comes together in the relatively central Mercat de L’Olivar, where every imaginable edible seems to exist — from candied fruits to caviar.
I meander through the latter with Marcel Ress, a 27-year-old German who came to Palma to work for Fosh when he was 21. Six years on, he has just won Top Chef, Spain’s version of MasterChef . Next month, he will launch a cookery school and show kitchen ( villa-wesco.com) in Santa Maria del Camí — a pretty town, flanked by vineyards, 20km northeast of the city.
Today, though, he is focused on another of his roles — as part of Chefs(In), a collective of Balearicsbased foodsmiths, several of them Michelin listed, which offers culinary experiences beyond the restaurant. These range from guided tapas tours to a “Hidden Kitchen”— a one-night pop-up, created once a month in venues as varied as shops and closed railway stations, the location only revealed on the evening, the guest list restricted to 16 people, and tickets available to first responders via the group’s website and Twitter feed.
“There is so much happening here,” Ress muses. “I came to Palma for challenge and opportunity — I found both.” Inquisitive visitors to Majorca will find it just as appetising. —© The Sunday Telegraph