La Salita (*), Valencia

Let me start off by saying that this was probably my best experience in a Michelin 1 star restaurant so far. I visited La Salita de Begoña Rodrigo in the Ruzafa neighborhood on a Monday for lunch and went for the full La Salita menu (€190) which promised a full journey with thirteen (!) meat, fish and vegetable courses.

La Salita's head chef, Begoña Rodrigo, is self taught and worked in various hotels all over Europe. She came back to her hometown after 20 years of working abroad and opened the restaurant in 2005. It gained its first Michelin star in 2019.

I started off in the 'greenhouse' outside for a cocktail, made by their own cocktail bar right outside, and the appetizers. Seeing as I went for the full thirteen-course experience, describing each dish would take too long. I have included the full menu at the end. The menu started off strong with four appetizers meant to be eaten by hand and each presented on custom-made plates. A tuna 'tiara' set the theme: elegant creativity.

Afterwards, I got a tour of the downstairs lounge area and wine cellar by the sommelier. After the bread and homemade butter, the main dishes commenced with razor clams in a tiger nut cream. Tiger nuts are a Valencian specialty and used to create the classic horchata. Most, if not all of the dishes were created with local ingredients. A vegetable course with goose barnacles (bercebes) was followed by three textures of gamba. Then, squid in its own ink with a sort of dashi broth. A true surprise came with the next course, eel – again in three ways – the most surprising being in a trompe l'oeil sausage.

Before moving onto the actual main dish, I got a salpicon of bivalvia (a type of shellfish), which tastes of a bright vinegar. The first real meat dish was a stew of serrano pork with thyme foam. Afterwards, I was served a quail in a pickle fond and a quail leg on the side.

A pre-dessert with the indispensable Valencian oranges acted as a great setup to my favorite, figs sauteed in sweet wine and topped with a goat cheese mousse. It did not end there, as the petit fours contained a chocolate-covered rice stick which you had to fish out of a bouquet of flowers (again a trompe l'oeil). Before the final sweets, I found it odd that the waiter placed down a vase with some flowers in it. As it turned out, the flowers were removed and the 'water' of the vase was a reimagined Agua de Valencia cocktail.

I also have to give a shout out to the sommelier who recommended me excellent local wines with grape varieties that I hadn't yet tasted (Mercegeira and Bobal).

Overall, the kitchen really showed their creativity while not shying away from very traditional products and dishes. The waitstaff were very attentive and meticulous while not being overbearing at all. La Salita offered a kind of cooking that I truly enjoy: elegant, local and innovative. I highly recommend anyone to visit when they're in Valencia!