As many of you will know all too well, as soon as a restaurant is recognised in the 'World’s 50 Best Restaurants' list, your chance of securing a booking soon evaporates. With the recent release of the 2015 list just a few weeks ago, reservations at top ranked restaurants such as Mugaritz (no.6), Central (no.4) and this year’s winner, El Cellar de Can Roca, are increasingly hard to come by.
Ibérica has gone some way towards ameliorating the inevitable reservation disappointment. The Spanish restaurant group has partnered with celebrated chefs from across the Iberian and South American restaurant world, each entrusting a recipe to contribute its 'Great Chefs, Great Causes' menu.
From now until the end of August, guests visiting any of Iberica’s London restaurants can sample dishes served by restaurants in the 50 Best list with contributions from Asador Etxebarri (Spain), Pujol (Mexico), Quique Dacosta (Spain) as well as this year’s winner El Cellar de Can Roca. Dishes will be rotated on a weekly basis throughout the London Ibérica restaurants.
The special dishes start at £7 with all profits made from the menu being shared amongst a range of charities chosen by the chefs and include the likes of Action Against Hunger and UNICEF amongst them.
We stopped by the original Ibérica in Marylebone last week to check out a few of the tapas dishes and see if they stood up to their reputation. We're very pleased to say that they absolutely did.
Highlight dishes (pictured below) include:
- Squid parmentier with paprika and squid stock by Joan Roca from El Celler de can Roca, Spain
- Oyster with cucumber and lychee by Daniel Redono from Mani restaurant, Brazil
- Razor clam, yellow pepper and black quinoa by Virgilio Marinez from Central, Peru
- Mango, beer and black pudding by Juan Mari Arzak from his eponymous restaurant in Spain
- Watermelon infused in sangria by Albert Adria from Tickets in Spain
The ‘Great Chefs, Great Causes’ menu is available until 23rd August at Ibérica Marylebone, Farringdon and Canary Wharf as well as at their recently opened outpost in Manchester. A new Ibérica site is due to open in Victoria later this year.To find out more about which dishes are being served each week, Follow them on Twitter @ibericalondon
Follow Louis Fernando on Twitter at @tuckandvine and on his website Tuck & Vine.
