El Duende del Fuego y la cocina necesaria

_ Si tuviera que definir THE DIRED OF FIRE, in Los Llanos de Aridane, The Palm (A Sustainable Sun in the Repsol Guide, among other recommendations from specialized guides such as the prestigious Excellent! Canary Islands) perhaps I would say that it is the place where The Palm turns into flavor, memory and cooking necessary. It is in a historic building in the old town, in a city that transmits something rare in island urban centers: life, Careful, pulse, commerce and even a certain civic joy. Over there, in that friendly and well-preserved context, Pedro Hernández has built a food house, officially GastroBar, que no se conforma con ser una dirección correcta para comer bien en The Palm. Aspire to something more difficult and infinitely more romantic: make the kitchen a territory of identity, memory, inclusion and risk.

The tasting menu The origin, tried this saturday 20 June by a group of journalists and gastronomic communicators among whom was the undersigned, works as a synthesis of that search. It is not a long menu to draw from the ego that some chefs tend to have., nor a succession of signature fireworks, without further ado. Es, that's how I see it, a journey through the trajectory of THE DIRED OF FIRE, just as the letter itself announces: primal foods, kilometer zero product, memory and territory. But the phrase, that could remain in the common place of so many contemporary gastronomic discourses, here you find a concrete translation on the plate. Pedro Hernández does not use La Palma as a set. He uses it as a pantry, as language and as limit.

That limit is important.. Because the kitchen THE DIRED OF FIRE born from a decision, it would be said, radical: almost always work without the usual jokers in the kitchen. The proposal, both on the menu and on the menu, It is free of allergens in a very high percentage. It is not about having “adaptable” dishes for those who arrive with an intolerance., about building a gastronomic model in which inclusion is not an appendix, but the architecture of the restaurant itself. Hernández talks about the “maturity of a model based on gastronomic inclusion”, an idea that has taken years to take shape and that today seems more necessary than eccentric. At a time when so many tables continue to understand allergies as an operational nuisance, THE DIRED OF FIRE turns them into a starting point.

A cuisine that seeks flavor through different paths

The consequence is a less comfortable kitchen for those who run it.. Removing ingredients does not simplify: narrows the playing field. Forces you to think more, to tune more, to give up many invisible supports. Pedro himself recognizes that working with “primal foods, cigars, with very refined techniques” is not easy. And that tension is noticeable. The menu has some concentration exercise. Sometimes even austerity. There are dishes that do not seek easy colorism, nor the immediate visual blow, nor the ornament that hides. Its beauty lies elsewhere: in precise reduction, in the clean texture, in the honesty of a sauce, in the depth of a juice.

The startup already raises that grammar. The Pickled tomato skewer with cider blackberry gummies condenses acidity, sweetness and vegetal memory in a minimal bite, almost a declaration of intent: You don't come here to eat “important” products in the conventional sense., but to look again at the seemingly humble. He is followed by Winter Pasture Herd Cured Goat Cheese, a piece that talks about the landscape without having to explain it too much. There is in that cheese - cured by Hernández himself during 12 months- a dry concentration, direct, field and animal, milk and station. It is not a cheese put on the menu to cover localist file; is a coordinate.

One of the most revealing passes is the Green wheat bread with volcanic honey and goat butter. In another restaurant it could have been an accompaniment. Here you have dish category. Bread appears as a support for an idea of ​​territory: cereal, mineral sweetness, dairy fat, rusticity and precision. There is something deeply palmist in that combination, but also something contemporary in the way of presenting it, without loading it with folklore. THE DIRED OF FIRE is right when it avoids turning tradition into a postcard.

The Old octopus clothes, served in a small jar, It is one of those passes that explain well the cuisine of Hernández: popular background, marine product, legume, stew and a current reading that compresses memory. The octopus , far from luxury, appears as an ingredient of a kitchen of exploitation taken to another registry. It is one of the moments in which the menu is most recognizable and, maybe that's why, more emotional.

Then comes the Yellowfin tuna confit with plum vinegar and mojo foam, sheer skill of the cook to build flavor without resorting to excess. The fish appears clean, barely accompanied by a mojo foam of intense color, that provides acidity. Here you understand one of the keys to the house: Pedro Hernández cooking without salt, relying on the juices of the food, in reductions and concentrations, in acids, fats and funds. It is not a low flavor cuisine. It is a cuisine that seeks flavor in other ways.

In meat dishes, the menu gains density. And it returns patience and long cooking, of cooking of two, three and up to four days at low temperatures.

The Goat meat confit with white Malvasía wine has something back to deep island cuisine, the one that is not afraid of the adult animal, to the fiber, at the time, to the stew. The goat, so distinctive and at the same time so little domesticated for tourist taste, appears here with nobility. There is no will to soften it until it is erased. He accompanies her, he orders it, he lets her speak.

The Canarian black pork belly lacquered with black slimy wine es otro ejercicio de concentración. The bite, small and shiny, gathers fat, sweetness, wine and reduction. Pedro Hernández border that territory: that of sauces reduced to the right point, without heaviness, without dispersion. The same happens with the Ossobuco with reduced juice of sweet negramoll and pollines, perhaps one of the most rounded dishes on the menu due to its intensity and the way in which the wine is integrated as a structure of the dish. The reduction does not accompany: manda. Wrap the meat, darkens it… la prolonga.

Sweet desserts without the need for sugar

The desserts maintain the logic of the menu, although with greater chromatic and fruity freedom. He Passion fruit sorbet and Indian prickly pear foam introduce freshness, acidity and an almost volcanic image on the plate: yellow and red, foam and fruit, cleaning after meat intensity. The Recipe from the Tatin sisters adapted plays with a known pastry memory, but taken to one's own territory. It's pure apple. the whole block. and the Deconstruction of the Listán Prieto closes with a particularly suggestive idea: not just drink the wine, but to convert it into edible matter, in texture, in final memory.

The pairing reinforces the story. White bujariego from Bodegas Carballo, white wines from the Bodega Mergus area, Victoria Torres, Bow Mountain, In the vineyard, Malvasía Carballo… The selection does not act as a simple liquid accompaniment, but as an extension of the same thesis: La Palma is the entire body of the experience.

Pedro Hernández, definitely, has chosen the less obvious path. I could have done more gastronomy “normal”, easier to read, more salable at first sight. He does not present it as a resignation, but it is in the most fertile sense of the term: has put aside certain shortcuts to pursue an idea of ​​his own. There is a visible nonconformity in his work, a productive discomfort. He himself admits that there are always things that can be improved., that sometimes color is missing, that the path is not always comparable in all its sections. That awareness, far from detracting, he adds it. Cuisine that is not questioned tends to age quickly.

The origin It is a menu with thought, with moments of great depth and with clear ethics: look at the Palmero product with devotion and technique.

But let's not make a mistake: Pedro Hernández La Palma does not cook like someone who remembers it, but as someone who is still understanding it.