Ensaladilla rusa

"It doesn't look like a salad, but it does have each and every one of its ingredients and its flavor. We turned it into a different, more experimental dish, giving each ingredient pride of place." First, Roncero creates a base of creamed potato blended with mayonnaise. On top, he places a confit of bluefin tuna, cooked at a low temperature, accompanied by pickled gherkin, carrot, olive, egg, and shelled peas, turning these unassuming ingredients into a gourmet dish.

The multi-faceted Paco Roncero is Executive Chef at the La Terraza del Casino restaurant in Madrid (with 2 Michelin stars), and he also has restaurants in Bogotá, Cartagena, and Ibiza. He has also become a great champion of tapas, giving them a new lease on life by updating traditional recipes in his Estado Puro gastrobars in Madrid and Shanghai. Roncero is reinventing Spanish cuisine's most traditional tapas, refreshing old dishes with surprising, original touches that play with flavors and textures. The result opens up a new culinary dimension and shows that simple dishes made with quality ingredients, creativity, and imagination can become haute cuisine.