High-end Spanish cooking that respects ingredients and tradition: Hong Kong moves on from molecular gastronomy of El Bulli’s Ferran Adrià

Spain’s chefs and cuisine were put on the map by molecular gastronomy pioneers such as Ferran Adrià at El Bulli, and flourished around the world for a while

Lately high-end Spanish contemporary restaurants have made a comeback in Hong Kong, led by chefs who show their skills while valuing ingredients and tradition

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Hong Kong restaurant Ando’s “Sin Lola” rice dish, chef Agustin Balbi’s take on a soupy Spanish rice dish that pays tribute to his grandmother. It’s an example of modern Spanish cooking in the city. Photo: Ando

Kee Foong

Published: 11:15am, 10 Jul 2022

During the early 2000s, El Bulli – Ferran Adrià’s temple to molecular gastronomy – was regularly voted the world’s best restaurant.

Adrià, along with the Roca brothers, at El Celler de Can Roca, Andoni Luis Aduriz, at Mugaritz, and Juan Mari and Elena Arzak, at Arzak, to name a few, have established Spain as a global culinary force.

Throughout that decade, that influence spurred the rise of contemporary Spanish restaurants in Hong Kong, including The Principal, Catalunya, Vasco, FoFo by el Willy and the short-lived View 62, by star chef Paco Roncero, at the rotating top level of the Hopewell Centre.

Many of those venues have since closed or moved to serving classic fare, as the city’s appetite for smoke, foam and gels waned.

Recently, however, modern, high-end Spanish restaurants seem to be staging a comeback.

This time, they are focused on creative techniques that highlight, rather than subvert, the quality of ingredients, taking the traditionally humble cuisine to new heights.

The product is the most important thing for me

Antonio Oviedo, Agora