Dani García | Chef
What has brought you to Ibiza?
The perpetual Ibiza-Marbella synergy. They are sister destinations, of a different father but the same mother. I have many connections here. I have known the owners of the Nobu Hotel practically all my life. First there have been many years of admiration and now I’ve had the opportunity to sit here with Nobu and cook with him. There is no better place to be for me than the bay of Talamanca, watching the sunset, the city of Dalt Vila, with the Nobu restaurant next door.
What is Ibiza for you?
I’m from the peaceful side. People hear the word Ibiza and think of party, for me it’s the opposite. It means being in a cove, looking at the turquoise sea, enjoying a lobster or a ‘bullit de peix’. It’s peace, comfort and tranquility.
What do you expect from your ‘Vivo’- restaurant on the island?
To bring a ‘lively’ spirit to the island. Success will depend on whether we have shown our other brands well enough. In Marbella there is room for all our brands. We also go to Madrid and Barcelona, but there we have to work them more. There are ‘Vivo’-restaurants in Doha, Hawaii and Miami but it is also important that there is one in Tarifa, in Marbella and on Ibiza, because I like this type of places, places with magic.
You have gone from being a master chef with three Michelin stars to promoting a new type of restaurant.
Gastronomy is an enormous field, you don’t need to focus only on the elitist part. Now, in a ‘Vivo’-restaurant we feed 9,000 people and 180,000 diners a year, we reach more people, it involves more life experiences and another way of having fun. Nor do you have to go so far as to eat what the cook has thought up at that time, life is much simpler and it’s there to be enjoyed. I have been a chef with 3 Michelin stars, however now, I don’t feel worse if I make croquettes or cebiches.
Are you hoping to democratize the kitchen?
We could say so, because we include many more people, we still have that touch of haute cuisine like making guacamole or aguachí at the table. We make ‘ají amarillo’ for the yellow ceviche as we have learned from the haute cuisine and these recipes are now democratized in a venue that is simpler but full of quality.
After this roller coaster from fame to simplicity, what do you dream of?
To bring my brands all over the world, which was the reason why I left haute cuisine. There is a 3-minute video that is very representative of the company; in it I inform my team that we are going to leave the 3 stars and dedicate ourselves to something else. In that video from November 2018, I say that it is very good to reach the top, but in life you can do many things and I would like to expand to other places and reach many more people. I dream about that and I see that a lot of what I said to my team in those moments is being fulfilled and this makes me happy.
How do you see the future of cooking?
More or less as we see it now; we have marked our path and we know what the client wants. Haute cuisine is good for a small Japanese restaurant with room for 15-20 people. I believe more in the guests happiness and joy, in tasteful things that do not have to be explained a hundred times, I believe in the cheerful restaurant with music, where you can have a good time, contemplate the sunset, the atmosphere, the people, the sea, like this one in the bay of Talamanca. I believe in things like the ‘feeling’ that exists in Ibiza.
Do you believe in sustainability, in zero km food?
We attach great importance to emphasize the peculiarity of each place using its local products.
